Bitter Reunions
by KATTALNUVA
Summary: Sequel to Long Way to Morning. Jaden and Alexis go to their class reunion at Duel Academy, but it turns bitter when some uninvited guests crash it. Inspired by Batman Arkham Asylum
1. His Pride and Joy

**Previously, Alexis' stalker Billy Jobs, billionaire tyrant and Duel Academy alumnus, found out that she was pregnant with Jaden's child. After his escape from prison Billy began making plans to kidnap Alexis and force her to have an abortion. Jaden, Alexis, and friend spent the next nine months hiding in Chazz's mansion, until their location was discovered. Jaden was forced into a duel to the death with Alexis as the prize. To protect Alexis and his unborn child Jaden called on the power of the Supreme King, the duel went back in forth, but I the end Jaden was victorious and Billy fell to his death. Shortly after Alexis' water broke, she was rushed to the hospital where she gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Sakura.**

**Almost a whole year had passed and Jaden has been living happily with his new family… but he still hasn't forgotten how high the stakes became during his duel with Jobs, or how close he came to losing. As a result he has pushed himself to improve his skills and become an even better duelist.**

"Hello Jaden… we meet again… for the last time"

"No! This is impossible… You're dead!"

"Ha-ah… Don't you read comic books Jaden? Nobody stays dead too long… well… unless you happen to be Ben Parker, or Thomas and Martha Wayne."

"NO!!!"

Jaden Yuki woke up with a start. He looked around the room and saw that Alexis was sleeping soundly to his side. Next he got out of bed and went to check on Sakura, she was sleeping like a little angel in her makeshift crib. They were all safe on Chazz's ship along with their other friends en route to Academy Island for their class reunion.

"Phew… Thank the lord… just dreaming." he thought.

For the next couple minute Jaden just sat there trying to fall back to sleep, that's when Pharaoh woke up and the spirit of Banner came out of his mouth.

"Another bad dream Jaden?"

"The sixth one this month."

Almost a year ago Alexis was in her ninth month, that's when Jaden had been forced into a duel to the death with the insane Billy Jobs, a duel that he barely survived, but the billionaire tyrant hadn't been so lucky.

"Even in death… his shadow looms over me."

Jaden didn't talk about these dreams of his with Alexis; he remembered the endless nights they had spent worrying for the life of their child during her pregnancy. He tried his best to keep even the thought of Billy Jobs buried.

"I shouldn't be thinking about the anniversary of his death… I should be thinking about my daughter's upcoming first birthday, and my class reunion… But for some reason I can't shake the images from my mind."

"Maybe it's because you and Sakura are the reason there will be one empty seat at the class reunion." said Yubel.

"Thanks…"

"Jaden his head was bitten off by a crocodile, he can't get much deader than that. And even if by some unholy miracle he managed to come back… well… Let's just say he'd regret it if he came anywhere near Sakura."

Yubel had watched Sakura develop the whole time she was inside Alexis, she described it as watching a seed grow into a flower. Now she was able to read Sakura's thoughts, so Jaden and Alexis always knew what she wanted if she started crying.

"What is it?"

"Just a bad dream."

"I better take care of it before she wakes Alexis."

Jaden walked over to Sakura's crib and took her in his arms.

"It's okay, daddy's here."

As soon as Sakura had been capable of thought when she was developing, Yubel had told her about how great her parents were. When Sakura could sense the fear and anxiety of her mother when Jaden was dueling Billy Yubel was the one who assured her that her father would protect her. When she was placed in Jaden's arms for the first time a year ago she had actually pulled herself up to his face and gave him a baby kiss.

"The night seems endless and scary

The unknown gives reason to be wary

But through it all people who love you are by your side

They'll always be here to nurture and guide

Every seed turns into a flower

Every minute turns to an hour

Every night turns into day

So sleep and dream the night away"

The lullaby that Yubel had come up with never failed to help Sakura fall back to sleep. Jaden crawled back into bed; the minute he did Alexis wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

"That's my Jaden, something happens and you're just all over it aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's me… Mr. Super Dad."

"How does it feel, knowing we're going back to the old alma mater?"

"The what?"

Alexis laughed.

"Sorry, I forgot you never studied… It means the school we graduated from."

"Oh yes, it feels weird… Especially since we're going back as a couple, and as parents…"

"You've probably got plenty of fans at the Slifer red dorm."

"Yeah… You think Dr. Crowler is still around?"

"Hmm… probably…"

"You know, when they found out that we were going to have a baby I'll bet he was thinking the same thing Chazz thought at first."

"Oh boy, another Jaden." they said together.

Meanwhile, far away in a dark room a lone woman sat in her chair lost in her thoughts and staring at the huge capsule that stood before her, then she heard her cell phone ringing.

"Well?"

"Good news mothership, the rats are reckless and my cat has fleas, over."

"What? What **are** you talking about?"

"I'm taking in code Ms. Beaufort."

"You don't need to talk in code, this is a secure line. Now what is it you wanted to tell me?"

"Very well… Jaden Yuki, his family and friends are all traveling on Princeton's boat, and are en route to Academy Island as we speak."

"Excellent, your job is done, you'll find your money in a red envelope inside your mailbox, and if anyone asks… you don't know anything."

"Copy over."

She put her phone down and turned her attention back to the capsule she was looking at. Her eyes were lost on the thing inside it, one could almost say it was sleeping, but she knew that wasn't the case.

"What is it my dear Elizabeth?" it said through the intercom.

"Jaden Yuki and his family are bound for Duel Academy, they'll be attending the class reunion."

"Excellent, everything is going according to plan."

"If it's not too bold… Why do we need him? You know… Outside the obvious."

"I don't think a woman of science such as yourself would understand."

She smiled at it through the glass.

"Women of science submit themselves to the laws of physical reality… I ignore them."

"Even so… you'll think it sounds crazy."

"As I'm sure you already know…" she said flirtingly "I pretty much make my living on crazy."


	2. I can't believe it's not Kaiba

"Jaden… Jaden wake up, we'll be there in a couple hours."

In an instant Jaden stood up like he was dueling, only his eyes were still closed.

"Wrong! Because I played a trap!"

Sakura laughed at her father's remark.

"Who was it this time?"

"It was Yugi again."

"Didn't you already beat his deck once?"

"Yeah, but Yugi wasn't using it, and that was minus the Egyptian gods."

"So did my favorite niece sleep soundly last night?" asked Atticus.

"Bro, she's your only neice."

"That makes her my favorite."

While the rest of them were eating breakfast Jesse noticed that Sakura was trying to catch Jaden's Winged Kuriboh as it flew playfully in circles around her.

"Hey Jaden, you never told me she could duel spirits too."

"Guess I forgot to mention it."

"I'll have to introduce her to mine one of these days."

"I still don't see how Chancellor Sheppard managed to squeeze in a few extra people just so we could be there for Sakura's birthday." said Blair.

"He said, the more the merrier, and besides he knows we were all there when… when Sakura was born, he knows we wouldn't miss her first birthday for the world."

"Well we all know there is one person Sheppard didn't have to make room for." joked Aster.

At that moment Jasmine slapped Aster in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked.

"You know Alexis doesn't like it when you bring him up!"

"What are you all so scared of? He's dead."

"We know, we were all there. Old Bad Bill did a cannon ball right into a tank full of crocodiles! AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" said Hassleberry doing his impression of Billy's final moments.

"That doesn't change what he tried to do." said Zane looking at Sakura.

"And besides, he was ungodly rich, how do we know the people at his company didn't find a way to cure him?"

After Syrus finished his statement everyone was quiet for a minute, then they started laughing.

"Yeah, I expect they cured death the instant Jaden beat him." said Chazz "I expect he owned hospitals that are now packed with the dead. Hello Mr. Jobs, take one of these three times a day you'll soon be living again. Carry him out, next corpse please."

They all laughed again.

When the boat arrived at the docks Jaden and friends found Sheppard and others waiting for them.

"Jaden! It's been far too long, how've you all been?"

"You already know the answer to that."

"Is that her?"

"Yep, that's little Sakura."

"Awe, she's darling!" said Dorothy "She looks just like you Alexis… except the eyes, those are definitely Jaden's."

"Well it's nice to see she takes after her mother…"

Without warning Sakura kicked Crowler in the chin.

"Oh my gosh! Dr. Crowler I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay! She's just a baby, she doesn't know any better… oww… powerful for a little tyke."

"Uba!"

"She can talk?"

"She can talk, but she hasn't said anything yet." said Alexis.

"What do you mean she hasn't said anything?" asked Crowler "She just said Uba."

"Uba is not a word." said Chazz.

"What is Uba?" thought Jaden.

"It's kinda her name for me." said Yubel "She thought Crowler was an evil clown or something, so she asked for my help. But if you ask me she did just fine by herself."

"Oh, that still doesn't count as a word though."

Sheppard showed Jaden and the others through the grounds, apparently they had done some landscaping since Jaden and the others graduated.

"Love what you've done with the place Chancellor."

"Yes, over the years we've made a few cosmetic improvements, but that's not all we've done, which reminds me… Jaden, would you be willing to do a little demonstration for the students?"

"If by demonstration you mean duel, sure, just who would I be dueling?"

"Follow me and I'll show you."

Jaden knew that he'd be facing his opponent in Obelisk arena, when they got there it was filled with students who had come to watch the duel. Alexis had been right, there was a number of Slifer students chanting Jaden's name.

"Okay everyone, calm down! Jaden Yuki, an alumnus of this very school, has graciously offered us his services today. Can he bring an end to Tom's winning streak?!"

"Who's Tom?"

In response to Jaden's question a blue and silver robot came in and walked onto the arena.

"Greetings… I am KCAIDR-6 a.k.a. Tom, how may I be of service?"

**(Illustration now available on deviantart)**

"Jaden, meet Tom, an artificial intelligence robot designed by the Kaiba Corporation with the ability to mimic the appearance and deck of virtually any duelist. Our students use him to practice with, but he's never lost a duel, and I'm hoping you can change that."

"So I'm raging against an undefeated machine… sounds like fun. Alright Tom, time to get your game on!"

"Select duel module."

"What?"

"Before Tom can duel you need to choose a duelist for him to become. Some students have Tom become themselves so they can learn new ways to use their deck, others have him become a pro duelist to see how they'd fair against them."

"So any duelist can be challenged?"

"Anyone."

"Okay Tom, surprise me."

"Processing request… Duelist identified, Jaden Yuki… calculating player strength… selecting duel module… module selected… please stand by."

The sky blue orbs on Tom's head, hands, chest, and knees started to glow. Next Tom disappeared behind a bright white light, when it faded Jaden couldn't believe it.

"I am Seto Kaiba… Prepare to duel."

"Is that really Seto Kaiba?!" asked Syrus.

"Don't you pay attention?" said Chazz. "It's Tom in the guise of Seto Kaiba."

"Yes, thanks to the hologram projectors built into his body." said Crowler "Tom will now act and think like Seto Kaiba, all the while wielding a holographic duplicate of his deck."

"But why did Tom choose Kaiba?" asked Blair.

"I'm guessing that when the player lets Tom choose, he tries to think of a deck that he knows can beat his opponent." said Zane.

"Then why didn't he just go with Yugi's deck?" asked Hassleberry.

"You weren't here when it happened." said Alexis "During our freshman year Jaden defeated a duelist who was using Yugi's deck minus the Egyptian Gods, but Jaden's never beaten Kaiba's deck… not that I'm aware of."

"Are you ready to play runt?"

"I'm always ready."

They activated their duel disks and their life point totals went to 4000.

"Let's duel!"

"Someone looks excited." said Dorothy looking at Sakura.

"She watches me and Jaden duel all the time." replied Alexis "She enjoys it."

"It's my turn! First I draw… Next I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"That's it? I expected more from the great Seto Kaiba, but then again I guess you're not really Kaiba. I'll place a card face down, and next I'll summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600)

"Wildheart, attack and destroy his face down monster!"

Tom's monster was destroyed, but he was actually laughing.

"By destroying my Giant Germ you've activated its special effect, first you lose 500 life points!"

(Jaden: 3500)

"Now I special summon two more Giant Germs from my deck in attack mode!"

(2x ATK: 1000 DEF: 100)

"Two monsters?! With Kaiba's deck that can only mean one thing!" said Jesse.

"First I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon, your face down card is destroyed!"

Jaden's Mirror Gate was destroyed.

"Now I sacrifice both my Giant Germs to summon the legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

All of the students gasped at the sight of the legendary beast.

"Blue Eyes, attack and destroy his Wildheart! White Lightening!"

Jaden's Wildheart was incinerated by the dragon's attack.

(Jaden: 2000)

"Now this is more like it!" said Jaden.

The students were amazed by how calm Jaden seemed, then again most of them still remembered about how he never lost his cool in his televised duels against Billy Jobs.

"I play the spell card Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse the Elemental Heroes Clayman and Bubbleman in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Mudballman!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 3000)

"And I think I'll leave it at that."

"Awesome!" said Syrus "Mudballman has just enough defense points to survive Blue Eyes' attack! That should buy Jaden some time!"

"But not a lot of it." said Aster "If I know Kaiba's deck then he'll be able to find a way around it, and be able to protect his monster from anything Jaden might try."

"It's my turn, and I'll summon the Lord of Dragons in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 1100)

"As long as this monster is on the field all Dragon type monsters cannot be targeted by spells, traps, or monster effects that specifically designate a target."

"It's almost like I'm psychic."

"It's my turn! First I draw, next I'll place two cards face down and activate the spell card Mirage of Nightmare, now during your standby phase I can draw until there are four cards in my hand, but during my next standby phase I need to discard the same number of cards I drew."

"Is that all? What a pity… here I was thinking you'd be a worthy opponent… It's my turn again! First I draw!"

"Hold on, it's now your standby phase, so thanks to Mirage's effect I can now draw four new cards."

"Fine, just don't forget to discard four cards during your standby phase."

"Actually I won't need to, because now I'm activating my face quick-play spell Emergency Provisions, and I'll use it to destroy Mirage and gain 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 3000)

"Too bad all those extra points and cards aren't going to do you any good. First I'll switch my Lord of Dragons to defense mode, next I activate the spell card Burst Stream of Destruction, when there is a Blue Eyes White Dragon on my side of the field I can use this spell card to destroy every monster you control!"

The Blue Eyes fired a blast that destroyed Jaden's Mudballman.

"But since you used Burst Stream of Destruction your Blue Eyes can't attack this turn."

"Oh I'm not too worried about that. I activate the spell card Polymerization!"

"NO!!!"

"Here it comes!" said Chazz.

"And I'll use it to fuse the Blue Eyes on my field with the two Blue Eyes in my hand to summon The mighty Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

(ATK: 4500 DEF: 3800)

"Attack Jaden directly! Neutron Blast!!!"

The attack flew at Jaden.

"Not so fast! I activate my face down trap card, Negate Attack!"

The Ultimate Dragon's attack was swallowed into nothingness.

"Nice move… But you have only postponed your inevitable defeat!"

"You know, I wish I had a rare card for every time I've heard that." said Jaden.

He drew his card.

"Sweet! I activate my second Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse the Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix in my hand to summon my good old friend… wait for it… Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"A lot of good that move is going to do you Jaden…" said the copycat Kaiba "My Ultimate Dragon has more than twice as many attack points as your precious Wingman."

"Which is why I'm activating Fusion Weapon! Since Wingman is a level 6 fusion monster, I can use this spell card to give him a 1500 attack point boost!"

(ATK: 3600)

"That's still not enough…"

"I know, which is why I'm activating the field spell Skyscraper!"

Giant buildings rose out of the ground.

"Thanks to this, when one of my Elemental Heroes is about to battle a monster with more attack points, then that hero gets a 1000 attack point boost!"

(ATK: 4600)

"No!!!"

"And that gives him just enough points to wipe your dragon out! Wingman… cook his goose, or in this case his dragon."

Flame Wingman fired a blast that sent the Ultimate Dragon up in flames.

(Tom: 3900)

"NO! MY ULTIMATE DRAGON!!!"

"And that's not all, my Flame Wingman still has his super power, now you lose life points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points!"

(Tom: 0)

The students burst into applause, Tom reverted back into his normal state and fell to his knees.

"No! I can't believe this… I am superior to him in every respect… the cards… the strategy… a duelist like you can't beat me… This can't be true!!"

"Aww… To bad so sad." said Atticus "Well he's your consolation prize Tommy… It's Bucket-O-Nothing! Surprise your friends, impress your family, annoy perfect strangers! It's absolutely nothing… but wait! There's more! Order now and we'll send you a hardy handshake absolutely free! For only NINETY-NINE NINETY-NINE NINETY-NINE!!!"

"I still can't believe I'm related to him… even if it is by marriage." thought Jaden.

**(To be continued)**


	3. He's back

**Mary Shelly: I busied myself to think of a story that would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature… and awaken… thrilling horror… one to make the reader… dread to look around… to curdle the blood… and quicken the beatings of the heart.**

"Is everything ready for tonight my dear Elizabeth?"

"Yes… Bruno, Heather, John, and the others are in position… Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It's necessary my dear… by the time they find out our true intentions it will already be too late… Oh… one more thing… I believe you've been looking for this card…"

Elizabeth caught it and her jaw dropped, then she started jumping like a school girl.

"I've been looking for one of these all my life! Where'd you get it?!"

"From a friend of mine who owed me a big favor… Now go finish the preparations… the show starts in ten."

When Elizabeth left the room, he went over to the organ and played five seconds of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, then he started to play something entirely different, and he sang along.

"All around a mulberry bush, the Obelisk chased the slacker. The slacker thought 'twas all in fun. SPLAT goes the slacker! MWAH HA-AH-AH AH, LAUGH WITH ME! MWAH HA-AH-AH AH!!!"

The class reunion was taking place in the Obelisk Blue dorm, Jaden and Alexis had left Sakura with Blair, Hassleberry, and the others while they attended. While there Jaden and Alexis were bombarded with questions about the events that happened a year ago by their fellow alumni, a topic they didn't like talking about.

"Okay, we all know they had a close call with Jobs, now leave it alone!"

"Thanks Chazz."

"Don't mention it."

Suddenly the lights went off all across the island and people started to scream.

"What's going on?"

"Emergency generators!"

At that moment the lights came back on, and every monitor on the island showed the image of a woman with long curly pale blonde hair.

"Students, teachers, faculty, and my fellow alumni I have an important announcement to make… This is Elizabeth Beaufort, the girl with the crazy ambitions for those of you that don't remember… I'm here to tell you that Academy Island is now under our control…"

"What is she talking about?" asked Syrus.

"Before I forget I have one question for you all… Where is Jaden Yuki?"

Jaden stepped up.

"I'm right here… what do you want?"

"Oh no, it's not what I want… it's what **he **wants."

The screen moved so that it showed a silvery robot.

"It's! It's! It's!!! Who is this?" asked Mindy.

"It's Zero from the Mega Man X franchise!" said another one of the alumni.

"No it's not; it's the terminator."

"You're both wrong, it's the transformed Cooler from the Dragon Ball Z movies!"

At that moment Jaden heard Yubel hissing angrily, then the robot spoke in a raspy mechanical voice.

"I can see you don't recognize me Jaden… but that should be no surprise… not after what you did to me."

"Do… I know you?"

"Maybe these will refresh your memory…"

The robot held up four spell cards, Jaden didn't think much of it at first, but then he and the others realized what they were.

"No! It can't be!" exclaimed Jasmine.

The spell cards the robot was holding were Rushed Production, Machine Insurance, The Spoils of War, and The Hyper-Death Ray. At that moment Jaden immediately rushed to his wife's side.

"You're not Billy Jobs!" said Chazz "We watched him die!"

"Hee-hee-hee… I know… but thanks to the efforts of my dear Elizabeth here… a part of me survived…"

The robot took off the metallic helmet on the top of his head, revealing a brain in a dome filled with liquid underneath.

"EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!" exclaimed just about everyone in the room.

"Yes Jaden, EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!! This is all that's left of me after you caused me to fall into the pit, or do you not remember? Roll the clip!"

A disk rolled across the screen, then Billy slapped the transparent dome that was his forehead.

"Now please put the disk in the machine, and press play."

The screen displayed a recording of the incident when Jaden dressed in the Supreme King's armor broke out of Billy's cage, running up to him and tearing of his helmet, and then caused one of the rockets on Billy's colossal robot exosuit to fire at the ground making it collapse, it ended with Billy being overcome by the crocodiles.

"Okay… Why would you record that?" asked Alexis.

"What's so weird about it? You have videos of weddings and births."

"So you have the night off and invite a few friends over so they can watch you snuff it?" joked Jaden.

"Ha-ha very funny… But I'll be the one who has the last laugh tonight slacker."

"If you lay one hand on Alexis or my daughter…"

"HA-AH-AH!!! I don't care about your wife or your precious offspring Jaden."

"You don't?" they all said surprised.

"Death has a way of changing a person's priorities… This is about revenge, plain and simple… I'll bet you're expecting me to immediately challenge you to duel to the death between the two of us… but why should I have all the fun?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that in order to prove you're worthy to duel me, you'll have to run the little gauntlet of opponent's I've arranged for you."

"Me prove myself worthy to duel you? You seem to have forgotten that I beat you twice. And who says I want to duel you anyway?"

"Because Jaden, thanks to the bombs my men have planted all over the island, I'm ready right now to blow you all sky high… If anyone tries to get on or off the island… you all die. Make no mistake Jaden, I'm in control of Academy Island… you're not going anywhere I don't want you to…"

"You crazy son of a…"

Chazz didn't finish his sentence because Billy was holding up some kind of remote.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you Chazz? Never insult someone who can end your life with the push of a button."

"What do you hope to gain from all this?" asked Jaden.

"I already told you… revenge!"

"But if you don't care about Alexis anymore, then what the heck does taking revenge on me mean to you?"

"Simple, I'm obsessive compulsive… And it's because of you Jaden that I'm just a brain in jar on a robot body… sure thanks to the efforts of my dear Elizabeth here I was saved from eternal damnation… but I can hardly call this living… Never again will I brush a rose against my cheek, feel the soft fur of a small kitten, or interfere with a woman sexually."

"Billy, you never did any of those things." said Elizabeth.

"Well I would have done one day… Anyway Jaden it's all up to you… are you willing to play my little game or not?"

Jaden thought of all the innocent people Billy had brought into this mess, the students, the faculty, his fellow alumni, his friends, his wife, his little girl.

"Okay Bill… I'll play."

"Excellent, now if you don't mind I'll tell you the rules…"

"You make the rule?!" said Syrus "You'll only break them!"

"I'll take care of you later Truesdale… Now as I was saying Jaden… All you have to do is face my little gauntlet of duelists one at a time… each victory will bring you one step closer to me, but lose even once and… well I'll leave that to your imagination… Follow these simple rules and no one gets hurt… Are you ready for your first duel? Good… He's waiting for you at the Slifer red dorm, and I suggest you duel your hardest… the whole island, and the world will be watching."

At that moment the screen changed so that it showed and the others staring at it.

"I think he was serious when he said the whole school would be watching."

"You know it's a trap." said Chazz.

"Of course it is… But Billy Jobs coming back from the dead, so he can threaten to blow up my alma mater and my little girl along with it and get away with it?… I don't think so."

**(To be continued)**

**New illustration available on deviantart!**

**Mecha-Billy!**

**and keep your eyes open for Jaden's first opponent, it will be on deviant art before the chapter is posted.**


	4. Tick Tock Tick Tock

**(the illustration of Jaden's opponent in this chapter is available on deviantart)**

After Billy's message the first thing Jaden and Alexis did was run to check on their daughter, they were relieved to see that she was still with Blair, right where they left her.

"You guys better stay here, Billy made it pretty clear that he wants me alone."

"Jaden…"

"Alexis I have to do this."

"I know but… be careful… I don't want to become a widow when I'm not even two years into my marriage."

"Yes Lexi, I'll be careful. You just watch out for yourself and Sakura, trusting that mechanical monster isn't a mistake I intend to make. Everyone else, keep your eyes open, try and find out what you can on this Elizabeth Beaufort, it could come in handy later."

"Don't worry Jay." said Jesse "We'll take care of Alexis, and your little girl, isn't that right guys?" he said to his cards.

"If that lame brain comes anywhere near my godchild, I'll blow his mechanical head off and make sure this time he stays dead." said Chazz.

Suddenly they heard Billy's voice over the intercom.

"Attention slacker… Your first opponent is getting impatient… and he doesn't like to be kept waiting…"

"I guess that's my queue to exit."

Jaden was just preparing to leave when he remembered something.

"Yubel, do me a favor and stay with Sakura, I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Don't worry Jaden… That maniac won't get near her."

As Jaden made his way through the dark deserted woods to the Slifer Red dorm he thought about all that was at stake here.

"Don't worry Jaden, I will help you win!" said Avian.

"We will help you win." said Burstinatrix.

"Yep, you got it Jaden!" said Air Hummingbird.

"Winning is our job!" said Grand Mole.

"Now let's go kick his butt!" said Sparkman.

Suddenly Jaden heard screaming, the next thing he knew there was a lot of Slifer students running past him.

"It's coming! It's coming!" said a student that ran into him "Run for your life! Run! Run! RUN!!! And when you're finished, RUN SOME MORE!!!"

"Okay, calm down… What happened?"

"Ba-ba-ba back there... Da-da-da-da."

"Okay, why don't you tell me what happened?" said Jaden to another student.

"Sure, Da-da-da-da."

"Well we know one thing's for sure Kuriboh. There's da-da-da-da over there."

Jaden finally made it to the Slifer Red dorm. He noticed that Sheppard had put a stone statue of Slifer the Sky Dragon a few feet from the dorm building. Apparently it was meant to inspire the students.

"Kinda brightens up the place."

This dorm had been Jaden's home the whole time he was a student at Duel Academy. Sure it was a dump, but for those years it had been his dump.

"Hello! Anyone home?!"

Jaden didn't see anyone around, and he was sure that Billy said his first opponent would be here. That's when he heard the intercom.

"Hello Jaden, this is Elizabeth pinch hitting for Billy who is... how do you say it? Decomposed?"

"Not decomposed! Indisposed! Geez." said Billy's voice.

"Sure, now where's my opponent?" asked Jaden.

"Oh he's on his way… wait a minute… do you hear something?"

Elizabeth played something that sounded like the tick tock of a clock, then he heard something that sounded like real deep breathing, it seemed to be getting louder and louder with each passing second, then Jaden saw that Kuriboh seemed to be panicking and pointing at him.

"There's something really bad behind me isn't there."

Jaden turned around and…

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

Back at the Obelisk Blue dorm everyone could see what was happening on the TV.

"By the god cards! What is that thing!?!" exclaimed Crowler.

Jaden was staring face to face with a ten foot creature with gray scaly skin, arms thicker than a tree, giant jagged teeth, and to top it all off a tail.

"Is that a man?!" asked Zane.

"Not at all." said Elizabeth "Remember the crocodiles Billy used a year ago? He got them from his companies research division which was experimenting with animal mutations, the big crocodile you see on screen is our first real success."

"Oh so he's just a monster, to think I was worried." said Aster.

"Let me guess… You call him Croc." said Jaden as if he wasn't afraid at all.

"HA-AH-AH-ARGH, pathetic mammal!" it said in a deep harsh voice "I am Bruno! The crocodile that walks like a man! And once I defeat you in this duel I will be rewarded with a suitable mate!"

"Mate?"

"That's pretty much all animals do." said Elizabeth "Mate and eat."

"Now enough talking… Let's duel!"

"Dueling ten foot crocodiles that walk on their hind legs?" said Blair "Now I've seen everything."

"Come on Mr. Hero… Take care of the big bad monster." joked Bruno.

"Oh I'll take care of you." said Jaden "My heroes and I will kick your scaly butt!"

"We'll see about that… Now come on."

Both of them activated their duel disks and their life point totals went to 4000.

"Let's duel!"

"I'm the biggest so I'll start! I summon a monster in defense mode, and next I'll play the spell card "A" Cell Breeding Device."

"What's that do?"

"Oh you'll find out soon enough… But in the mean time it's your turn."

"Okay, I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Next I'll have him attack your face down monster."

Jaden's Sparkman had no trouble.

"Now I'll just throw down a face down and call it a turn."

"HA-AH-AH-AH! You call that a monster? I eat punks like him for breakfast!"

"Just make your move."

"My pleasure, now the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device activates!"

Suddenly an a huge purple slug like creature shot out of the machine and attached itself to Jaden's Sparkman.

"What is that thing?!"

"That's an alien counter, once per turn during my standby phase my "A" Cell Breeding Device lets me attach one to one of your monsters. Now I'll play the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy your face down card. Next I'll summon Alien Hunter!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"Aliens? Why would a huge crocodile monster be using alien troops?" asked Hassleberry.

"You never studied, did you?" said Syrus "I'm willing to bet this guy is using aliens because it's one of the only existing archetypes for reptile monsters."

"Now I activate the field spell Otherworld - The "A" Zone, next I'll attack your Sparkman with my Alien Hunter!"

"But they have the same attack points."

"Not for long, thanks to the effect of Otherworld - The "A" Zone, whenever one of your monsters battles one of my alien monsters, your monster loses 300 attack and defense points!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 1100)

"Now my Alien Hunter, attack!"

Jaden's Sparkman was impaled on the Alien Hunter's trident.

(Jaden: 3700)

"And now my Alien Hunter's effect kicks in, whenever he destroys a monster that was equipped with an alien counter, he can attack again, only this time it's directly!"

"Okay, not good."

"Alien Hunter, attack!"

(Jaden: 2100)

"Looks like Jaden's off to a rocky start. Don't you think so Billy?" said Elizabeth.

"Just tell me when it's over…"

"What's his problem?" asked Atticus.

"Bro don't you remember? He only had his head bitten off by a crocodile, he's probably petrified by them."

"Oh yeah."

"It's my turn!" said Jaden "And I'll summon a monster in defense mode. Now stop me if I'm wrong about this, but I'm sure your "A" Cell Breeding Device can't attach an alien counter to one of my monsters if you don't even know what it is."

"A lucky guess, but you're still not safe from me! I summon Alien Infiltrator!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 500)

"And get this… If there are no cards on your side of the field in the same column as my Alien Infiltrator, then he can attack you directly!"

"Say what?!"

"Alien Infiltrator, attack!"

(Jaden: 1300)

"Okay… I've got to get something started!"

Jaden drew his card.

"First I'll switch the facedown Elemental Hero Wildheart on my field to attack mode."

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600)

"Now I activate the spell card Hand Destruction, now both of us need to discard two cards from our hands and draw two new cards!"

"So what was the point?"

"That point is I was looking for this, Polymerization! Which I'll use to fuse the Wildheart on my field with the Bladedge in my hand, in order to summon Elemental Hero Wildedge!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 2300)

"And if you think he's awesome now, just wait till you see his super power! He can attack all the monsters on your side of the field!"

"What?!"

"Wildedge, attack!"

Both of Bruno's monsters were destroyed.

(Bruno: 2200)

"Wait a minute… Shouldn't you have lost more life points than that?"

"You forget the effect of Otherworld - The "A" Zone, whenever one of your monsters battles one of my alien monsters, your monster loses 300 attack and defense points!"

"Okay, I'll just have to try harder next time."

"Now that's more like it!" said Syrus.

"That's my Jaden." said Alexis.

"Err… You'll pay for that mammal! I activate the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device to place an alien counter on your precious Wildedge. Next I'll place a card face down and play Code A Ancient Ruins."

"What does that do?"

"Oh you'll find out…"

"Not before I wipe you out with this, my Elemental Hero Heat!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)

"And for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field, he gains 200 attack points!"

(ATK: 2000)

"Hero Heat, attack!"

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Negate Attack! As I'm sure you know this cancels your monster's attack and ends the battle phase."

Jaden's attack was blocked.

"It's my turn again, and I'll use the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device to place another alien counter on your Wildedge. Next I activate the spell card Pot of Greed and draw two more cards from my deck… Next I'll remove the two alien counters on your Wildedge so I can special summon my Alien Overlord!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 1600)

"Now I'll activate his special effect! Once per turn I can place an alien counter on all the monsters that you have out! Next I'll activate the effect of my Code A Ancient Ruins, by removing the alien counters I just attached to your monsters, I can special summon an Alien monster from my graveyard, and I think I'll choose Alien Hunter."

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"But he won't be around for long, because now I'm sacrificing him to summon my Alien Mother!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1500)

"Okay… definitely not friendly."

"Don't worry, her bite is as bad as her bark. But first I'll play the spell card Corruption Cell "A", this lets me place an alien counter on your Wildedge. Now I'll attack him with my Alien Overlord!"

"But my monster has more attack points!"

"Not quite, thanks to the effects of Otherworld - The "A" Zone and my Alien Overlord, your monster loses 600 attack points!"

(ATK: 2000)

"Overlord, attack!"

Jaden's weakened Wildedge was destroyed.

(Jaden: 1100)

"Now you no longer have that monster to give power to your Hero Heat, so he loses 200 attack points!"

(ATK: 1800)

"And now I'll attack him with Alien Mother, thus activating the effect of my Otherworld - The "A" Zone, causing it to lose 300 more attack points!"

(ATK: 1500)

"Alien Mother, attack!"

(Jaden: 300)

"He's only got 300 life points left!" exclaimed Syrus.

"Come on Jaden, you can do this!" said Alexis.

"I must admit Bruno… Those Alien monsters of yours are pretty sweet, but I think it's time you met some of mine… I activate O - Oversoul! This lets me special summon a normal Elemental Hero from my graveyard, and I choose the one and only Elemental Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"What the?! He wasn't in your graveyard!"

"Think again, remember when I played Hand Destruction?"

"… Oh yeah."

"And he's not the only card I sent to the graveyard, I also sent Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin there as well, so now I can play Cocoon Party, and use it to special summon Chrysalis Pinny!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 700)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Contact, this causes Chrysalis Pinny to grow up into Neo Spacian Glow Moss!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 900)

"Now I'll activate a contact fusion between him and Neos to summon… wait for it… Elemental Hero Glow Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Now I'll activate his special effect, I get to destroy one card on your side of the field, and what happens next depends on that cards type. And I choose… your "A" Cell Breeding Device!"

Bruno's card was destroyed.

"And since I used Glow Neo's attack to destroy a spell card, he can now attack you directly!"

"WHAT!?!"

"Neos, finish him off!"

(Bruno: 0)

"No… I can't lose… now I'll never get a mate! This is all your fault! I WILL RIP YOU APART AND EAT YOU ALIVE!!! GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

Suddenly something shocked Bruno before he could touch Jaden.

"Twinkle… twinkle… little star…"

Bruno fell to ground.

"What the heck?"

"Don't worry, he's just unconscious." said Elizabeth. "Billy wants the honor of killing you all to himself. Now proceed to the Ra Yellow dorm, your next opponent is waiting for you there."

**(To be continued)**


	5. The Ultimate Defense?

**(New illustartion available on deviantart. Heather Rasun)**

"Is it true what the Chazz said? Billy Jobs is back?!"

"Yeah, he's the one who tried to kill Sakura before she was even born."

"Shush!" said Ojama Yellow "Yubel is in there… we don't want to make any noise."

"What?!"

"I said…. SHUSH!!!"

All too late Ojama Yellow realized his mistake.

"Will you three bumbling idiots be quiet?!"

"Sorry!"

"… Great, you woke the baby."

Sakura was surprised that she could only see her mommy and Yubel there, she was used to seeing her daddy there with them.

"It's okay sweetie…" said Alexis trying to comfort her crying daughter "Mommy's here…"

Sakura was glad that her mommy was with her, but where was her daddy?

"Everything's going to be alright Sakura…" said Yubel "Your daddy just went out to fight all the bad guys."

Jaden made his way across the island to the Ra Yellow dorm where he was told his next opponent would be waiting for him.

"What's next, a giant dueling squirrel?"

At that moment he heard voices over the P.A.

"Billy, you can come out now, he's gone."

"Just a minute I'm in the middle of something… What?! Wild Pokemon can't use potions! That's it, have a taste of my Garchomp's dragon rush! … I said, have a taste of my Garchomp's dragon rush! … COME ON!!! Okay got it… Awesome it's super effective! GOTCHA!!! Okay I'm coming I just need to turn this thing off… Aw crap! Forgot to save my file! Now I've gotta catch Dialga and Palkia all over again!!! Oh forget it… Hello Jaden, I hope you're not too tired from your first duel… I'm just getting you warmed up for the main event."

"Why on earth is he having me run this gauntlet?" thought Jaden "Last time he just locked me in a cage and forced me to duel him, there must be more to this then simply getting his henchmen off the bench and into the game…"

Suddenly Jaden's phone started ringing.

"What have you guy's found out?"

"Well we had no problem accessing the school's computers, Billy is broadcasting this all across the planet, he doesn't seem to care if we try to email for help. The authorities believe his threat to blow up the island, I think it's safe to say we're on our own here…" said Chazz.

"Anything on his new girlfriend?"

"Nothing yet, but we're still looking."

"Let me know when you find something, I've got to go, I'm almost at the dorm."

When Jaden made it to the Ra Yellow dorm he found that there was a huge runway with Egyptian hieroglyphics all over it, there was also background around it that displayed ancient Egypt.

"I take it this wasn't here before." said Jaden.

Suddenly lights shown on the arena and there was a huge cloud of smoke, from it emerged an unbelievably beautiful young woman with long dark hair.

"Welcome to my stage Jaden. It will be your honor to duel me."

"Holy cow!" exclaimed Aster "It's the world famous duelist/model, Heather Rasun!"

"Mamma mia, that's a spicy meatball!" said Hassleberry.

"Wait a minute… that's Heather Rasun? It can't be!" said Mindy.

"Why not?"

"Heather used to be student at this school, only the girl I remember was a lot less attractive."

"No way, I never forget a girl." said Atticus "That's definitely Quasimodo all grown up."

"Quasimodo?"

"That's what they called her when she was a student here, she looked like she had a flippin beach ball on her back, but apparently she got herself an extreme makeover."

"To those of you that remember me, don't let your eyes fool you… I am indeed the same Heather Rasun that went to this school… True I used to be the most unattractive girl on campus, but then my tutor, the very wealthy and generous Billy Jobs, had pity on me and paid to get me plastic surgery and liposuction, now I am one of the most desirable women on the planet, men worship me like a goddess, I owe everything to Billy Jobs… And so now I will be the instrument of his vengeance…"

"You're saying that as if you think you can beat me." said Jaden

"Oh I know I can."

"Well we'll just see about that Heather… Prepare to get your game on."

"The pleasure is all mine."

"Let's duel!"

"The rules say ladies go first, so I guess after you."

"Thank you, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn. Don't be shy Jaden, step right up…"

"Sorry lady, I'm happily married, but here's something you can have. I play Polymerization! And I'll use it to fuse the Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"Flame Wingman, attack her face down monster!"

Jaden's Wingman didn't have any trouble destroying Heather's monster.

"And that's not all, when Flame Wingman destroys a monster, you lose life points equal to your monster's attack points."

(Heather: 2600)

"Nice, but my monster as a special effect as well. When my Giant Rat is sent from the field to the graveyard I can special summon an earth attribute monster from my deck, as long as it has 1500 or less attack points, and the card I choose is Criosphinx!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 2400)

"Why would she summon a monster that is clearly weaker than Jaden's?" asked Chazz.

"Well the way I see it there are two possibilities." said Zane "One: She's planning on switching it to defense mode. Two: She's planning to sacrifice it."

"It's my turn, and I think I'll sacrifice my Crisophinx so I can special summon Exxod Master of the Guard in defense mode!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 4000)

"Is it just me, or does that thing look just like Exodia?" asked Jaden.

"Think of him as Exodia's long lost brother, but don't worry Jaden, I don't plan on summoning the Forbidden One, Exxod is powerful enough to deal with you. I'll end my turn by summoning this monster in defense mode."

"What good is that thing if it can't engage Jaden's heroes in combat?" asked Hassleberry "It's got no attack points."

"Attack points aren't everything." said Aster "Exxod's defense points will make it very difficult to get to Heather's life points, and if I remember correctly he's got a pretty deadly special ablity."

"If Heather thinks that hulking big wall of a monster will prevent me from reaching her life points she's got something else coming." thought Jaden "I summon Elemental Hero Lady Heat!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 1000)

"Now I'll attack your face down monster with my Flame Wingman!"

Jaden's Wingman destroyed Heather's face down monster, but a beam of energy flew from the smoke and struck Jaden.

(Jaden: 3000)

"What just happened?! Did I just attack myself?!"

"It's Exxod's special ability, whenever one of my earth attribute monsters is flipped face up, you lose 1000 life points."

**(Please note: In real life Exxod's effect only activates when you flip summon an earth attribute monster, when you switch a face down defense position monster to face up attack position. Flipping a monster face up as a result of battle isn't the same thing, but to make this fanfiction easier for me to write, we're going to overlook that rule just this once)**

"Well thanks to my Flame Wingman's effect I'm not the only one who loses life points. Since he destroyed your monster you lose life points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points."

(Heather: 2150)

"Very nice, but thanks to my Man-Eater Bug's effect your Flame Wingman is destroyed with it!"

Jaden's Wingman was destroyed.

**(Please note: It's debatable how this situation would play out in a real duel since Man-Eater Bug's effect would activate after the damage step. It's difficult to say if Flame Wingman's effect would activate before he's destroyed, but to keep this simple let's just assume it would)**

"You'll pay for that with your life points Heather, during my end phase Lady Heat's effect activates, causing you to lose 200 life points for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field."

(Heather: 1950)

"Awesome! Jaden found a way to get around that thing to Heather's life points!" said Syrus.

"That's my Jaden." said Alexis.

"It's my turn! I remove the Man-Eater bug in my graveyard from play to special summon Gigantes!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 1300)

"But he won't be sticking around for long, because now I'm sacrificing him to summon this monster in defense mode."

"Is that all? In that case I'll place two cards face down, and summon Elemental Hero Knospe in attack mode!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1000)

"When I have another Elemental Hero on the field you cannot select Knospe as an attack target, and it can attack you directly!"

(Heather: 1350)

"When Knospe deals battle damage it loses 100 defense points, but it also gains 100 attack points!"

(ATK: 700 DEF: 900)

"And I think I'll call it a turn, which means Lady Heat's effect activates, causing you to lose 200 life points for every Elemental Hero I have out!"

(Heather: 950)

"Darn it! He's shaving my life points down to practically nothing! Time to take it up a notch."

Heather drew her card.

"First I'll summon a monster in defense mode, then I'll place these two cards face down, next I'll flip summon my Nobleman-Eater Bug!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 1200)

"And since I just flip summoned an earth attribute monster Exxod's effect activates, causing you to lose 1000 more life points!"

(Jaden: 2000)

"And that's not all. When Nobleman-Eater bug is flipped face up, I can destroy two monsters on your side of the field!"

Both of Jaden's monsters were destroyed.

"Now you're wide open for my bug's attack!"

"Not so fast Heather! I activate A Hero Emerges! Normally you'd have to pick a card in my hand, and if it's a monster I get to summon it, but since I have only one card in my hand you have to pick it, and the card I'm holding is Elemental Hero Woodsman, and I think I'll summon him in defense mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 2000)

Heather dared not continue her attack, she would've lost the duel.

"It's my turn, and I'll activate Woodsman's special effect, during my standby phase I can add a Polymerization card from my graveyard or deck to my hand, and I'll use it to fuse my Woodsman on the field with the Clayman I just drew to summon Elemental Hero Gaia!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 2600)

"And when Gaia is successfully summoned, I can cut the attack points of one of your monster's in half, and since Exxod doesn't have any attack points, I'll take some from your bug."

(ATK: 450)

"But that's not all, Gaia now gains an attack bonus equal to the amount of points he just took from your monster!"

(ATK: 2650)

"Now Gaia, attack her bug and end this duel!"

"Not so fast! I activate the trap card Staunch Defender, with this card I can force your Gaia to attack my Master of the Guard, and since he has 4000 defense points, you're about to lose a whole lot of life points!"

"Don't think so Heather, it seems you forgot about the card I played face down on my last turn. I activate Trap Jammer! And with this I can cancel out your Staunch Defender's effect!"

"Very well, then I'll activate Hallowed Life Barrier!"

Heather's Nobleman-Eater Bug was destroyed, but her life points remained untouched.

"Thanks to Hallowed Life Barrier, by discarding a card from my hand, I can prevent myself from taking any damage from your attack. And now that your turn is over your Elemental Hero Gaia loses the 450 attack points it gained."

(ATK: 2200)

"Now it's my turn, and I think I'll flip summon my face down Medusa Worm!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 600)

"Now Exxod's effect activates, causing you to lose 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 1000)

"And that's not all, when Medusa Worm is flip summoned I can destroy one monster on your side of the field!"

Gaia was destroyed.

"Now my Medusa Worm, attack!"

(Jaden: 500)

"And that's not all, once per turn I can flip my Medusa Worm face down, and when it's flipped face up again I'll be able to wipe you out with Exxod's effect!"

"This is not good!" exclaimed Syrus "One more blast from Exxod and Jaden's a goner!"

Sakura was crying again.

"It's okay sweetie." said Alexis "If I know your father he's got some kind of plan… I hope."

"Okay, since there are no other cards in my hand, I can special summon my Elemental Hero Bubbleman to the field in defense mode!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 1200)

"And since there are no other cards on my side of the field or in my hand, Bubbleman's special effect lets me draw two more cards from my deck. Next I'll play Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two more cards. Now I'll place two cards face down and play my Mirage of Nightmare!"

"Is that all? Very well then, I draw!"

"Don't forget Heather, during your Standby Phase my Mirage activates, allowing me to draw until I have four cards in my hand. Next I'll activate my face down Emergency Provisions, now by giving up my Mirage and my face down Spark Blaster, and in doing so gain 2000 life points."

(Jaden: 2500)

"Err… You're only delaying your eventual defeat!"

"I really wish I had a rare card for every time I heard that."

"Sorry, I don't have any rare cards for you, but I do have this, I flip summon my Medusa Worm again!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 600)

"Now Exxod's effect activates, causing you to lose 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 1500)

"And that's not all, now my Worm's effect destroys your Bubbleman, allowing it to attack you directly!"

(Jaden: 1000)

"Now you're just one move from losing!"

"Too bad there is no next move for you."

"You're bluffing!"

"I don't think so, I play the spell card Raigeki!"

"You can't! The card's illegal in tournaments!"

"Well then it's a good thing this isn't a tournament, I'm just running Billy's gauntlet. Now all the monsters on your side of the field are destroyed!"

Lightening rained from the sky and down upon all of Heather's monsters, reducing them to dust.

"No! My Master of the Guard!!!"

"Now I activate my Fusion Recovery, which I'll use to bring back my Polymerization and Bubbleman back from the grave to my hand, now I'll fuse the Elemental Heroes Bubbleman and Ocean in my hand to summon my newest hero… Now let's give a big warm… or should I cold welcome to Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Elemental Hero Absolute Zero, attack!"

Absolute Zero blasted Heather with an icy beam.

(Heather: 0)

"Stay frosty." said Jaden.

"Err… You may have defeated me… but you'll never defeat my fiancée…"

"Your fiancée?"

"Yes… He's your next opponent… and I think you know where he'll be…"

"The Obelisk dorm… Alexis! Sakura!"

Jaden started running in the direction of the Obelisk blue dorm, when suddenly a strange green gas erupted out of the ground enveloping him.

"Can't… kaff-kaff… see… can't… breathe."

Jaden heard Billy's voice over the P.A.

"Are you ready for your next duel Jaden? I hope so… Because when this next guy is through with you… YOU WON'T KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOUR MIND!!!"

**(To be continued)**


	6. The Chapter with no name

"Uggghhh… Where am I?"

Jaden slowly got up off the ground, as he did he caught the smell of something burning.

"… Oh no!"

He looked around and saw that the entire island was in ruins. Trees that hadn't been blown out of the ground were burning in place. He looked behind him and saw that the Ra Yellow dorm was a pile of rubble.

"No… They did it… THOSE MANIACS!!! THEY BLEW IT ALL UP!!!"

For a few seconds Jaden just lay there, and then he realized something.

"Wait a minute… If Billy detonated his bombs… then why am I still alive? Yubel? … Yubel!!!"

Jaden couldn't sense her; he remembered that he had told Yubel to stay with Sakura to keep her safe.

"Wait… If she stayed with Sakura… that must mean… she's still alive! HOLD ON SAKURA! DADDY'S COMING!!!"

Jaden ran as fast as he could toward the place where the Obelisk Blue dorm would be. As he ran he had the feeling that he was being followed.

"Almost there…"

That's when the skeletons started jumping out from behind the trees, Jaden ignored them and continued running towards the dorm where he was sure his daughter was waiting for him.

"Jaden Yuki, Jaden Yuki, this is it, this is it! Billy's gonna get ya! Billy's gonna get ya!!!" they kept repeating.

Jaden finally made it to the dorm, the building was still intact. As he burst in through the doors he found himself in what appeared to be a court room. The jury was made up of skeletons, and Elizabeth stood beside Mecha-Billy on one end.

"Where is my daughter?!"

No one answered Jaden's question, but the skeleton's started singing.

"Here comes the judge! Here comes the judge! Everybody knows it, here comes the judge!"

A tall thin skeleton with fiery red eyes came up to the judge's seat, he was wearing only an open black leather vest and blue jeans.

"Silence in the court!" he said in a deep booming voice as he banged the gavel "The prosecution will now read the charges."

"Your honor, the defendant is charged with murder in the first degree. The murder of Billy Jobs…" said Elizabeth.

"But… But your honor."

"Jury, how do you find the defendant?"

"Guilty! Guilty!"

"Your honor, this is no trial! Where's my lawyer? Where's my defense?!"

"Very well… bring in the witnesses."

There was a flash of smoke and Jaden heard people singing.

"They wrap you up in a long white shirt, They put you in a long pine box, and cover you over with dirt and rocks. The worms crawl in the worms crawl out, they eat your guts like sauerkraut. Your eyes pop out your teeth decay, and that's the end of a wonderful day!"

From the smoke emerged three people; Mr. Stein, Professor Viper, and the vampire mistress Camula.

"This won't end well." thought Jaden.

"And what do you have to say on the defendant's behalf?" asked the judge.

"He is a very bad man." said Mr. Stein "Send him to the gas chamber!"

"Hang him!" said Viper.

"Cut off his head!" roared Camula.

"Here's an even better idea." said Billy "Hang him in the gas chamber and then cut off his head."

Camula, Viper, and Stein all vanished the same way they had appeared, singing the same song as they went.

"How does the jury find the defendant?" asked the judge.

"Guilty! Guilty!!!"

"Your honor this is a travesty of justice!" said Jaden.

"No, this is a travesty of justice."

Elizabeth left the room, and when she came back in she was wearing a white robe, a blindfold, and carrying a sword and scale.

"Look at me! I'm Justice! You have to do what I say! La-la-la-la-la-la!!!"

"Isn't she out of order or something?" asked Jaden.

"No you're out of order!" said one of the skeletons pointing at him "You're all out of order! This vending machine is out of order! I gave you the money; now give me my orange happy juice you bucket of bolts! AAAAGGGGHHH!!!"

"Whatever... How does the jury find the defendant?"

"Guilty! Guilty!!!"

The skeleton judge looked at Jaden.

"Do you have anything to say before I pass your sentence?"

"Where is my daughter?!"

"That's what they all say. I sentence you to a duel to the death with me, if by some crazy fluke you win I'll let you go free… When you lose madness will take you… forever…"

"When I win this duel you'll tell me where Sakura is!"

The skeleton judge hopped down and activated a rather fiendish looking duel disk. As he did Jaden activated his own.

"Let's duel!"

"You failed to save your friends and family… now you will suffer. I activate the spell card Painful Choice, this allows me to…"

"I know what the card does!" said Jaden "Now just show me your five cards!"

"Someone's eager to enter the abyss… very well. I choose these."

The skeleton judge was holding three copies of the monster Skull Servant and two copies of The Lady in Wight.

"Skull Servant is one of the weakest monsters in the game, and Lady in Wight is only good if you're looking for some defense… He must be getting his weaker monsters out of his deck so he won't draw them."

Jaden thought it didn't really matter which monster he picked.

"I'll let you keep the Skull Servant in the middle."

"Very well, then my four other monsters go to the graveyard, and this Skull Servant goes to my hand… but he won't be there for long, because now I activate Card Destruction! This forces us both to discard our entire hands to the graveyard."

The skeleton drew five cards and Jaden drew six.

"Now I'll end my turn by placing this monster in defense mode."

"He's a skeleton, and I know that he sent five zombie monsters to the graveyard with Painful Choice, I think it's pretty safe to say this guy's deck revolves around zombie monsters... and since zombie monsters have some of the lowest defense points in the game, with the right combo I can inflict some serious damage."

Jaden drew his card.

"I'll place a card face down, and summon Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Now I'll activate the spell card H – Heated Heart! Now not only does Sparkman get an extra 500 attack points this turn, but if he destroys a defense position monster then the difference between its defense points and his attack points are dealt to you as damage!"

(ATK: 2100)

"Sparkman, attack!"

(???: 3700)

The monster had been destroyed, but the skeleton judge was actually laughing.

"By attacking my Poison Mummy you've activated its special effect, when it's flipped face up you lose 500 life points!"

(Jaden: 3500)

"That attack hurt you more than it hurt me, and the pain is only beginning because it's my turn! And now since your H – Heated Heart is now longer in play, your Sparkman loses the 500 attack points it gained!"

(ATK: 1600)

"Now I'll activate two continuous spell cards: The Card of Safe Return, and Everliving Underworld Cannon!"

"What do those do?"

"You're going to find out right now, because I activate the spell card Book of Life! This lets me special summon a zombie type monster from my graveyard, and I choose Despair from the Dark!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 3000)

"When a monster is special summoned from my graveyard my two continuous spells activate! First the card of safe return lets me draw a card from my deck, and then Everliving Underworld Cannon inflicts 800 points of damage to you!"

(Jaden: 2700)

"And my Book of Life has another effect, I also get to remove one monster in your graveyard from the game, now show me your cards!"

When the judge looked at the monsters from Jaden's graveyard, he saw one that he knew removing it from play would practically give him the match.

"Perfect… I choose Elemental Hero Neos!"

"No!"

"Yes, and the fun doesn't stop there… I activate another Book of Life! Now I can special summon another zombie monster from my graveyard, and I choose Shadow Ghoul!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1300)

"And since I special summoned another zombie monster from my graveyard the effect of my Card of Safe Return and Everliving Underworld Cannon activate, now I get to draw another card and you lose 800 more life points!"

(Jaden: 1900)

"Darn! The duel just started and I've already lost more than half my life points!"

"In a moment you'll lose them all, but first the second special effect of my Book of Life kicks in, allowing me to remove another monster in your graveyard from play… and I choose Neo-Spacian Grand Mole!"

"Is this guy's turn going to end sometime this millennium?"

"Don't worry about my turn… It's your life that's about to end, because my Shadow Ghoul gains 100 attack points for every monster in my graveyard!"

(ATK: 2400)

"Shadow Ghoul, attack!"

"Not so fast, I activate my face down trap card, Negate Attack. Now not only is Shadow Ghoul's attack canceled, but your battle phase is over!"

"No matter… You cannot hide from my monsters… they will crush you on my next turn…"

"He must've purposely sent all those card to the graveyard to power up his Shadow Ghoul… too bad all his hard work is about to go to waste…"

Jaden drew his card.

"I activate Polymerization! And I'll use it to fuse the Sparkman on my field with the Clayman in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1500)

"Now by discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy one monster on the field whose original attack points are less than Thunder Giant's, and I choose your Shadow Ghoul!"

Thunder Giant blew Shadow Ghoul away.

"And that's not all, now I activate the spell card Emergency Card Stash! When there are no other cards in my hand, I can use this spell card to draw six cards from my deck!"

**(For those of you who haven't read my previous fanfictions, this is not a real card)**

Jaden drew his card.

"Excellent, I'll place a card face down and activate the field spell Skyscraper! Since your Despair from the Dark has more attack points, my Thunder Giant gets a 1000 attack point boost!"

(ATK: 3400)

"Thunder Giant, attack!"

Thunder Giant blasted Despair from the Dark with its electric attack.

(???: 3100)

"You'll pay for that mortal! Your life points are about to be obliterated!"

"Just try and kill me."

Now the skeleton judge started laughing again.

"Do you really think I sent all those monsters to the graveyard just to power up my Shadow Ghoul? Hardly… I did it so I could summon… my most powerful monster… But first I play Mystical Space Typhoon, and I'll use it to destroy your Skyscraper. Next I summon King of the Skull Servants!"

Jaden didn't know what to make of the monster that clawed its way out of the ground. It just looked like an ordinary Skull Servant, it didn't even have a crown or anything.

(ATK: ? DEF: 0)

"How come its attack points aren't determined?!"

"My King of Skull Servants gains 1000 attack points for every Skull Servant, King of Skull Servants, or Lady in Wight in my graveyard. I sent two Skull Servants and two copies of Lady in Wight to the graveyard with my Painful Choice, and then I sent another Skull Servant plus two kings to the graveyard with Card Destruction."

(ATK: 7000)

"Seven thousand attack points?!"

"That's right and they're all coming for you! King of Skull Servants, attack!"

The King destroyed Jaden's Thunder Giant, but his life points remained untouched.

"What!?! I just one the duel! You shouldn't have any life points left!"

"Not quite, I activated my face down trap, Hero Spirit. When an Elemental Hero is destroyed I can use this card to reduce all the damage inflicted by one of your monster's to zero."

"Congratulations, you've prolonged your suffering… but trust me when I say that's all that you've done."

"I can't let him get in another attack." thought Jaden "Otherwise this duel is over…"

He drew his card.

"I activate the spell card Swords of Revealing Light! This prevents you from attacking me for three turns!"

Several luminous swords fell from the sky and cut off the King of Skull Servants from Jaden.

"And I'll end my turn by summoning Elemental Hero Voltic!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1500)

"You think those swords will keep your life points safe? You're sadly mistaken… I play Foolish Burial! This lets me send one monster card in my deck to the graveyard. And now I'll activate the effect of the monster I just sent there, when Mezuki is in the graveyard I can remove it from play to special summon a zombie monster from my graveyard, and I choose Despair from the Dark!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 3000)

"And I still have the Card of Safe Return and Everliving Underworld Cannon in play, so now you lose 800 life points, and I get to draw another card!"

(Jaden: 1100)

"And guess what I drew, it's another Foolish Burial! Now I'll use it to send another Mezuki from my deck to the graveyard. Now I can remove that Mezuki from play to special summon Shadow Ghoul!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1300)

"And don't forget… Shadow Ghoul gains 100 attack points for every monster in my graveyard!"

(ATK: 2400)

"But that's the least of your worries, since now the effects of my spell cards activate again, so you lose 800 more life points and I get to draw another card!"

(Jaden: 300)

"That ends my turn, but soon I will end you!"

"I need to get something started… I'm down to my last 300 life points and he still has 3100."

Jaden drew his card.

"I summon Neo-Spacian Air Humming Bird!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 600)

"Now I activate his special effect! For every card in your hand, I gain back 500 life points!"

(Jaden: 1800)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Secret Pass to the Treasures, this lets one of my monsters with 1000 attack points or less attack you directly! And I choose Elemental Hero Voltic!"

(???: 2100)

"And when Voltic inflicts battle damage, I can special summon an Elemental Hero that was removed from play!"

"NO!!!"

"Yes, and I'm sure you know which card I want… Come on back… Elemental Hero Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Err… I can't let him summon one of his best monsters… and I can't let him gain any more life points… Usually my opponents are cowering in fear by now, why isn't it working?!"

The skull judge decided to get on with the duel and drew his card.

"I activate the spell card Tribute to the Doomed! By discarding one card from my hand I can destroy one monster on the field. And I choose your precious Humming Bird!"

Jaden's Humming Bird was mummified.

"Now I'll activate my third and final Book of Life to special summon the monster I just discarded… Vampire Lord!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1500)

"And thanks to the second effect of my Book of Life I'll remove your Humming Bird from play. Now thanks to my spell cards I get to draw a card, and you lose 800 life points!"

(Jaden: 1000)

"Now I'll remove my Vampire Lord from play in order to summon Vampire Genesis!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2100)

"King of Skull Servants, Despair from the Dark, Shadow Ghoul, and Vampire Lord? That's quite the scary lineup." thought Jaden. "I could have Neos destroy Shadow Ghoul… but if he draws a card that will let him destroy my swords then I'm a goner."

Jaden drew his card, unfortunately it wasn't what he was hoping for.

"I'll switch both my monsters into defense mode and end my turn."

"Then it's my turn! I play the Graceful Charity card; this lets me draw three cards from my deck as long as I discard two, and since the two cards I'm discarding are Lady in Wight and Goblin Zombie my Shadow Ghoul gains 200 attack points."

(ATK: 2600)

"Now I'll activate the effect of my Vampire Genesis, by discarding Bone Crusher to the graveyard I can special summon the Lady in Wight I just sent to the graveyard in defense mode!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 2200)

"Now thanks to the effects of my Card of Safe Return and my Everliving Underworld Cannon, I get to draw a card, and you lose 800 life points!"

(Jaden: 200)

"Sure since I've filled up my field I can't special summon any more monsters from my graveyard, so I won't get to use Everliving Underworld Cannon anymore, but it doesn't matter because on my next turn all my monsters will be free to attack, and since I have Lady In Wight on the field my King of Skull Servants can't be destroyed in battle, nor is he effected by spells or traps, so there goes any hopes you may have had about defeating my most powerful monster…"

The skeleton judge noticed that Jaden didn't look afraid at all.

"What's wrong with you?! Usually by now my opponent's would be paralyzed with terror! Why aren't you afraid?!"

"Because this isn't real." said Jaden "The destroyed island, you, the zombies, non of it is real!!!"

"Not real says you… As real as pain and death says I!"

"And I suppose you have regular tea parties with the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy."

"I'm nothing but the real deal, what makes you think otherwise?!"

"Simple… When I left the Obelisk Blue dorm to run Billy's gauntlet I ordered Yubel to stay with my daughter so that nothing would happen to her, and in doing so I made myself vulnerable. Yubel would never abandon Sakura even if I hadn't told her to look after her, so there was no way I could've survived the destruction of Duel Academy, unless it never happened!"

"You cling only to false hope, on my next turn I will defeat you and then madness will claim you forever!!!"

"There is no next turn for you, I've drawn just the card I need. I summon Neo-Spacian Dark Panther!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 500)

"What do you expect to accomplish with a cat?"

"By himself, not much, but by using him in a contact fusion with Neos, I can summon Elemental Hero Dark Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"So now you have a monster with the same amount of attack points as the last one, big deal!"

"Oh it's a very big deal, because now I can use his special effect and negate the effects of one monster on your field, and I choose King of Skull Servants! So your monster loses the 7000 attack points it gained!"

(ATK: 0)

"NO!!!"

"Dark Neos, attack!"

Dark Neos went into a dive bomb at the King of Skull servants.

"Sure thanks to your Lady in Wight your King of Skull Servants survives the battle, but your life points are another story!"

(???: 0)

"NOOO!!!"

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, Jaden couldn't close his eyes in time and was blinded by it… and he knew no more.

**(To be continued)**

**New illustration available on deviantart: John Laughton**


	7. Jaden vs MechaBilly?

"Jaden… Jaden wake up!"

Jaden's friends were all crowed around his fallen body.

"Who was that person he was dueling anyway?" asked Jesse.

Some of them went over to look at Jaden's unconscious opponent. They pulled the skull mask off his face and saw that his skin was ghastly pale, even more frightening were the three large scars on the left side of his face.

"Who the heck is this?" asked Aster.

"Oh my gosh! I'd know that face anywhere!" said Crowler "It's John Laughton!"

"Who?"

"He was once a student here at Duel Academy… the other students bullied him because of his albinism."

"I remember now…" said Zane "He got into trouble with the authorities a few years ago. He uses airborne toxins to induce hallucinations, his opponent's think they're seeing ghosts, and he uses this to scare them to death. Who knows what he could have done to Jaden."

"Just a minute, this will bring him back."

Atticus pulled out something with a stench that struck everyone like a bolt of lightning.

"What is that?!" exclaimed Syrus.

"A stinky sock. Trust me, this thing could raise the dead."

"Pee-yeew! That is ripe!" said Jasmine.

"Whose is it?" asked Mindy.

Chazz was blushing.

"Give me that!"

Not even the foul sock could wake Jaden up. Then Alexis got an idea.

"Jaden! Your dinner's ready!" she yelled in his ear.

"Uggh… dinner? Where's dinner?!"

Jaden sat up and realized where he was.

"Give us all a heart attack why don't ya?"

"Lexi… I'm okay… where's Sakura?"

"She's inside, we just got her back to sleep."

"I… I saw the island destroyed…"

"It was just a hallucination… We saw you being drugged with something on the TV…"

"Well that explains that… Now where's this dinner I'm hearing about?"

Some of the others fell over.

**(You know what I mean, that thing in anime shows when someone says or does something that surprises everyone and they all just fall over)**

"Tell you what Jaden." said Dorothy "You beat Billy and we'll have a nice big dinner waiting for you when you get back."

"Sounds like a plan. But we don't know where he is."

Suddenly Billy's image appeared on the TV.

"Congratulations slacker, you've defeated all the worthless others and completed the gauntlet! Now only one task remains… I'm waiting for you at Obelisk arena."

Light suddenly shone outside leading the way to the arena.

"Well that's my queue…"

"Hopefully this will be the last time."

"You know what they say guys, the third time's the charm."

Jaden made his way across the island to Obelisk arena. When he got there he found that all the lights were out.

"Alright I know you're in here, so come on out you maniac."

Mecha-Billy jumped down from the ceiling and stood to face Jaden.

"I must admit slacker, I'm surprised you made it this far… Beating Bruno, Heather, and being able to beat John while he had you on a visit to trip out city. You're harder to kill than a cockroach on steroids."

"You're one to talk. Even when we watch you get your head ripped off you always come back…"

"That's right… I'll do it again and again! I will make you pay for what you've done to me!"

"Threatening my family was bad enough, but now you threaten to blow up the whole island and everyone on it just to get to me? You're completely mad! Where's the detonator?!"

Billy pulled a remote out of his hands and pressed the button.

"NO!!!"

At that moment, all across Academy Island, black boxes that had been placed inside the buildings erupted sending confetti all over the place, they also sent huge banners into the air that read "BLAMMAAGE!!!".

"Are you telling me that you got us all worked up over nothing?"

"Pretty much. See slacker if not for Elizabeth I would be in the fiery underworld, and I'm never going back, I know God would never forgive me if I wiped out an island of innocent people when it wasn't necessary. All I'm really after is you, and I know God won't punish me for that, after all… an eye for an eye."

"That's it… now I'm going to kill you."

"Sure, but first slacker I think it's time for our final showdown. Now give me a good fight, like you always do…"

They both activated their duel disks.

"Let's duel!"

"I'll start things off! I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

Jaden remembered that Billy had tried something like this before.

"I'm not falling for that again… I activate the spell card Nobleman of Crossout! This allows me to destroy one face down defense position monster you have out and remove it from play!"

Billy's Blast Sphere was removed from play.

"Now I'll summon Elemental Hero Heat!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)

"My hero gains 200 attack points for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field, including himself!"

(ATK: 1800)

"Elemental Hero Heat, attack!"

(Billy: 2200)

"That was luck, but it won't save you from this, I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master, this spell card give me 1000 life points."

(Billy: 3200)

"Next I activate the spell cards Rushed Production and Machine Insurance. Now I'll used Rushed Production's effect, by giving up 1000 life points I can special summon Jinzo from my deck!"

(Billy: 2200)

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 750)

"Sure he only has half the attack and defense points he normally would, but it doesn't really matter because now I'm going to sacrifice him to summon Jinzo – Lord!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1600)

"Now the effect of my Machine Insurance kicks in, since my Jinzo was sent from the field to the graveyard I now gain life points equal to the average of his attack and defense points!"

(Billy: 4150)

"Jinzo – Lord, attack!"

Jinzo – Lord blew Hero Heat away with a blast of psychic energy.

(Jaden: 3200)

"If he thinks that monster scares me he's sadly mistaken, it may prevent me from using any trap cards, but I don't need any to beat it."

Jaden drew his card.

"I summon Elemental Hero Stratos!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 300)

"When Stratos is successfully summoned, I can take an Elemental Hero from my deck and add it to my hand. Next I'll play R – Righteous Justice and use it to destroy your Machine Insurance. And now I'll play Double Summon so I can summon another monster, my Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Spark Blaster. With this my Sparkman can force your Jinzo – Lord into defense mode!"

Sparkman shot Jinzo – Lord with his blaster, forcing him on the defensive.

(DEF: 1600)

"Now my Stratos can destroy it!"

Stratos flew up into the air and went into a dive bomb, it struck Jinzo – Lord dead on destroying it.

"Now Sparkman, attack him directly!"

(Billy: 2550)

"You're going to pay for that slacker! I activate the effect of my Rushed Production! By giving up 1000 life points I can special summon my Blowback Dragon from my deck with half its points!"

(Billy: 1550)

(ATK: 1150 DEF: 600)

"Next I'll play Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse my Blowback Dragon with the Barrel Dragon in my hand to summon Gatling Dragon!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1200)

"Now I play the spell card The Spoils of War and activate my Gatling Dragon's special ability! Now I toss a coin three times, and for each time it's heads I can destroy a monster on your side of the field."

Billy tossed the coin three times, but each time it came up tails.

"Shoot, it is of no matter… Gatling Dragon, attack his Sparkman!"

BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA

(Jaden: 2200)

"And now thanks to my continuous spell card The Spoils of War, I can draw two cards from my deck!"

"He's going to need them."

Jaden drew his card.

"I activate the field spell Skyscraper!"

After Jaden's buildings surrounded the field he held up the last card in his hand.

"And now I'll activate Emergency Card Stash, enabling me to draw six cards from my deck. Next I'll place this card face down. Now since my Stratos has less attack points than your Gatling Dragon, Skyscraper gives him a 1000 point bonus!"

(ATK: 2800)

"Stratos, attack!"

(Billy: 1350)

"That's it slacker… I'm done playing with you… I activate my Rushed Production spell card! By giving up 1000 life points I can special summon Machine King from my deck with half his points!"

(ATK: 1100 DEF: 1000)

"Next I'll play Fiend's Sanctuary, allowing me to summon a metal fiend token!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"Now I'll sacrifice it and my Machine King to summon Perfect Machine King!"

(ATK: 2700 DEF: 1500)

"Now I'll equip him with the ultimate spell card, THE HYPER-DEATH RAY!!!"

"Oh it just had to be that one." said Jaden.

"When my Perfect Machine King is equipped with this spell card, not only does he deal damage even if your monsters are in defense mode, but he also gains 1000 attack points for every machine monster in my graveyard, in case you haven't been counting it's six."

(ATK: 8700)

"Perfect Machine King, end this!!!"

Billy's Machine King blasted Jaden's Stratos with the Hyper-Death Ray, but when the smoke cleared Jaden's life points were untouched.

"WHAT!?!"

"Sorry Bill, but when you attacked I activated my Hero Spirit, which I used to reduced the damage inflicted by your monster to zero."

"Err… Too bad that only works for one turn… And since I destroyed one of your monsters I can draw two cards thanks to my Spoils of War, and I think I'll play them right now, two copies of Dian Keto the Cure Master, which I can use to gain back two thousand life points!"

(Billy: 2350)

"On my next turn I will finish you off forever!"

Jaden drew his card.

"Sorry Bill, but there is no next turn for you."

"You bluff!"

"I think not. I activate Polymerization to fuse Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"Next I activate Miracle Fusion, and I'll use it to fuse my Flame Wingman with the Sparkman in my graveyard to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Now for every one of my heroes chilling out in the graveyard, my Wingman gets an extra three hundred attack points."

(ATK: 3700)

"That's still not nearly enough, my Machine King has more than twice that many points!"

"I know, all because of that Hyper-Death ray, a problem all too easy to fix."

"WHAT!?!"

"I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon, and I'll use it to destroy your Hyper-Death Ray, so your Machine King loses the six thousand attack points it gained!"

(ATK: 2700)

"Wingman, attack!"

Shining Flare Wingman blasted Billy's Machine King into oblivion.

(Billy: 1200)

"And when Flare Wingman destroys a monster, that monster's attack points are dealt to you as damage!"

(Billy: 0)

All across Duel Academy people started celebrating, but Aster, Zane, and Jesse could tell something was wrong.

"That was way too easy."

"NOOOOOOOO!!!"

Suddenly Billy was engulfed in a bright white light, when it faded Tom was standing in his place.

"But… he told me his deck would be sufficient to defeat you…"

"Tom!!!"

"So it wasn't Billy after all." said Chazz "It was Tom mimicking the role."

"But if that's Tom… where is the real Billy?"

Jaden left the arena to return to the Obelisk Blue dorm to discuss with his friends where Billy might be, leaving Tom on his knees at the arena.

"I don't… understand… He's beaten Yugi's deck… he's beaten Kaiba's deck… my processors tell me Pegasus' deck won't work either… Is there no dueling deck that can defeat his?"

Just then something crossed Tom's mind.

"Yes… No dueling deck can defeat his…"

**(To be continued)**

**That's right folks, it's not over yet!**

**What is Billy planning, what does he hope to gain from all this besides revenge?!**

**The plot thickens...**


	8. The Destroyer of Worlds

"Billy, what's taking you so long?"

"Patience Elizabeth, Sheppard seems to have added a few things to make it more difficult. It will take me a minute to find the proper access code. We don't want to sound an alarm, otherwise knowing Jaden he'll ruin everything."

"Well whatever you do just be quick about it."

"I will."

Being mostly machine did have its advantages, such as having an entire electronic store on your wrist.

"Ten million possible security codes and it changes daily… Let's try them all."

It did only took the device on Billy's arm a minute to locate the right one, but it surprised him.

"That's it? That's the security code? That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his garage door opener!"

Jaden had made it back to the Obelisk Blue dorm, he found that some people where busy sweeping up the confetti from Billy's "bombs".

"Well now that we know his threat was a bluff, shouldn't we just wait for the police to get here?" asked Mindy.

"I'm not sure we can wait that long." said Aster "Billy is up to something, he wouldn't just hold the whole island hostage over a simple revenge scheme."

"And what's more, why would he have Jaden face a gauntlet of opponents?"

"Zane's right, the last two times Billy just challenged Jaden himself."

"Maybe he's trying to distract us."

"Yeah, but from what?"

"Wait a minute, I think I know, it sounds crazy, but hear me out." said Blair "Billy is no longer after Alexis; apparently he's had a thing for Elizabeth since she brought him back to life… If you can call being a brain in a jar on a robot body living."

"So he's putting the moves on someone else, so what?" asked Chazz.

"So… how's he going to put the moves on anyone without a body?"

"… That's ridiculous." said Crowler "There's nothing on this island that can give a brain a body."

"Nothing except…"

"The Sacred Beast cards!" exclaimed Jaden finishing the Chancellor's sentence.

Jaden and the others remembered how the Sacred Beast cards had restored Kagemaru to his youth; it was possible that Billy aimed to use them to obtain a new body.

"We need to get to the Spirit Gate!"

Jaden, Zane, Aster, and Jesse raced for the Spirit Gate while the others stayed behind.

"If Jobs gets his hands on those cards, we might as well be sucking cyanide." thought Zane.

Jaden and the others had made it to the tunnel entrance, but someone was waiting for them there.

"Tom? Get out of the way!"

"No… Not until you duel me…"

"What? I've already beaten you twice! And if you don't move Billy will awaken the Sacred Beast cards!"

"I don't care… I have only one function… The whole purpose of my existence is to duel… until I fought you I was undefeated… Now I will not rest until I have triumphed over you!"

"You should just call it quits Tom, there's no one inside you whose deck I haven't already beaten yet!"

Much to everyone's surprise, the dueling robot copy cat started laughing.

"I don't think so Jaden… I have one module in my system that no one else knows about… something I've been for an opponent like you… it's a deck you've never faced before… only used…"

"Oh no, don't tell me…" said Aster.

Tom started to transform, when the light faded their fears were confirmed, Tom had become the Supreme King.

"You know the old saying; one man's trash… is another man's treasure."

"This is bad, very bad."

"Err… Fine! If it's a duel you want, it's a duel you'll get!"

The both activated their duel disks.

"Let's duel!"

Like the other duels, this one was being broadcasted across the island, and the world.

"Jaden going up against an evil version of himself? This should be good." said Chazz.

"Since you're at a disadvantage in so many ways, I'll let you make the first move."

"Fine with me! I'll place a card face down, and summon a monster in defense mode."

"A feeble start! I'll show you how a real duelist fights! I play Dark Fusion! With this I can fuse Elemental Heroes Avain and Burstinatrix to summon Evil Hero Inferno Wing!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"Inferno Wing, attack his face down monster!"

Jaden's Clayman was melted.

(Jaden: 3900)

"As I'm sure you know, thanks to Inferno Wing's effect you lose life points equal to the difference between her attack points and your monster's defense points. Now thanks to her other special effect you lose 2000 more life points!"

(Jaden: 1900)

"Since you destroyed a monster on my side of the field, I can activate Hero Signal! Now I can special summon a level four or lower monster with Elemental Hero in its name from my deck, and I choose Sparkman!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"HA-AH! You must be desperate. That puny hero is no match for my Inferno Wing!"

"Maybe not by himself, which is why I activate The Warrior Returning Alive! Now I can bring my Clayman back to my hand. Next I activate my Polymerization, so I can fuse Sparkman and Clayman to summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1500)

"Now by discarding a card from my hand, I can destroy one monster on the field whose attack points are less than my Thunder Giant's, namely your Inferno Wing!"

Thunder Giant blew Inferno Wing away.

"And I still haven't attacked yet. Thunder Giant, attack him directly!"

(Tom: 1600)

"Now I'll place a card face down and play Mirage of Nightmare, and that's it for now."

"You call that Thunder Giant a monster? I'll show you a real monster!"

"Sure, but first my Mirage activates, allowing me to draw until I have four cards in my hand, next I activate my face down Emergency Provisions to destroy Mirage and gain 1000 life points."

(Jaden: 2900)

"No matter, your life points will be zero soon enough. First I play Hand Destruction, this forces us both to discard two cards from our hands, and draw two more cards from our decks. Next I activate the spell card Dark Calling, which I can use to fuse the Elemental Heroes Sparkman and Clayman I just discarded to summon Evil Hero Lightning Golem!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1500)

"Like looking in a mirror isn't it… only I'm bigger, and better."

"You know, I could probably sue you for copyright infringement and win."

"Safe it till after you've defeated me fool! And that's not going to happen! Lightning Golem, destroy his Thunder Giant!"

Lightning Golem blasted Thunder Giant with a burst of dark energy.

"And that's not all, I still haven't attacked yet. Lightening Golem, attack him directly!"

(Jaden: 500)

"I've got to get something started… I summon Elemental Hero Stratos!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 300)

"When Stratos is successfully summoned I can select one Elemental Hero from my deck and add it to my hand. Next I'll place a card face down and activate the field spell Skyscraper, and since Stratos has fewer attack points than your Golem he gains 1000 points!"

(ATK: 2800)

"Stratos, attack!"

Startos flew up into the sky and dive-bombed into Lightning Golem and destroyed it.

(Tom: 1200)

"Now I'll just throw down a face down and call it a turn."

"I call it a waste of time! There's nothing you can do to stop me! I play the spell card Pot of Greed and draw two cards, next I play Dark Fusion, which I'll use to fuse Evil Hero Malicious Edge and Armor Exe to summon Evil Hero Dark Gaia!"

(ATK: ? DEF: 0)

"And as I'm sure you know, Dark Gaia's attack points are equal to the combined attack points of Armor Exe and Malicious Edge, which is more than enough to wipe you out!"

(ATK: 5000)

"Evil Hero Dark Gaia, attack his Stratos!"

Dark Gaia created a huge meteor and threw it at Stratos, but when the smoke cleared Jaden's life points were untouched.

"Sorry, but by destroying Stratos you activated my Hero Spirit, which I can use to reduce all the damage inflicted by one of your monsters to zero."

"You've just delayed the inevitable Jaden… All the data I've accumulated tells me that you can't win."

"I've heard that delaying the inevitable line like a million times already, what makes you any different?"

"Because I have an ace in the hole… But first I'll play two cards face down."

It was Jaden's turn.

"Okay, since you sent my Elemental Hero Necroshade to the graveyard when you played Hand Destruction, I can now summon an Elemental Hero without a sacrifice, and I choose Elemental Hero Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Next I play Double Summon, so now I can summon Neo-Spacian Grand Mole!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 300)

"And now I'll initiate a contact fusion!"

"I don't think so you fool! I activate my face down trap card, Non-Fusion Area! As long as this card is on the field neither of us can fusion summon."

"This is not good."

Alexis remembered how on their wedding night, she used a Non-Fusion Area card in a duel with Jaden and actually won, she made Jaden swear that he didn't let her win. And then almost a year ago Billy had used the same card to cripple Jaden's deck in their duel, luckily Jaden was still able to summon his Level 10 Winged Kuriboh and used it to win the duel, she just hoped Jaden could find a way out of it this time.

"Okay, it's a loss but not a critical one. Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, attack!"

Jaden's Grand Mole hurled itself at Dark Gaia.

"When Grand Mole attacks, both monsters are immediately returned to our hands without damage calaculation! Now I'll attack you directly with Neos!"

"I think not, I activate Negate Attack!"

Neos was stopped in his tracks.

"You've played right into my trap Jaden Yuki, I play Emergency Card Stash which lets me draw six cards from my deck. Next I activate Heavy Storm, which destroys all spell and trap cards on the field!"

Both Jaden's Skyscraper and Tom's Non-Fusion Area were destroyed.

"Next I activate the spell card D.D. Designator, which I can use to remove the Neo-Spacian Grand Mole in your hand from play! Next I'll summon Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 600)

"… Here it is… THE FINAL CARD! I ACTIVATE SUPER POLYMERIZATION!!!"

"No! Not that!"

"Yes, that! This allows me to fuse my Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy with your Neos! Combining to form your doom!"

Jaden watched in horror as his Neos and Tom's Prodigy were sucked into the vortex.

"They're gone! But what's coming in their place?!"

"I SUMMON EVIL HERO NEOS!!!"

From the vortex emerged a black version of Elemental Hero Neos with what appeared to be silver pieces of metal covering certain parts of its body.

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"If you think he's scary now, just wait until he gains 500 attack points for every monster in my graveyard!"

(ATK: 6500)

"Sixty five hundred points?!" exclaimed Jesse.

"There's nothing he can do!" said Aster "He's got no spells, no traps, no monsters!"

"Evil Neos has enough power to destroy an entire planet, imagine what it can do at close range… Now I know why you gave up this power Jaden Yuki, because you don't deserve it… You cannot win because I am mighty, and you… are nothing!!!"

The Evil Hero Neos raised its hands to the heavens and it seemed to start gathering energy from the surroundings, focusing it all into a gigantic dark ball of energy that streatched higher and higher into the night sky.

"EVIL HERO NEOS!!! WIPE HIM OUT WITH YOUR DEATH BALL!!!"

Evil Neos threw its hands down towards the ground and the huge energy ball followed suit. There was a huge explosion.

"NO!!! JADEN!!!"

"MWAH-AH-HA-AH-AH!!! I'VE DONE IT!!! VICTORY IS MINE!!!"

Just then the smoke started to clear.

"WHAT!?! NO!!! YOU HAD NO CARDS IN PLAY!!! YOUR LIFE POINTS ARE ZERO!!! I'VE WON!!!"

"You're right… I didn't have any cards in play… But since you played Hand Destruction earlier I had Necro Gardna in my graveyard, and by removing him from play I can negate one of your attacks."

"Way to go Jaden, give us all a heart attack why don't you!" said Syrus.

Crowler, Mindy, and Jasmine were all hiding behind a couch.

"It's not just me." said Crowler "That was really scary, right?"

"Err… It matters not! There are no cards in your hand, and even if you draw a monster, on my next turn I'll activate my Neo's other special effect, then I'll be able to remove my Lightning Golem from graveyard so Neos will be able to copy it's effect!"

"Well then I guess I'll have to make this turn count." said Jaden "Look familiar? I play my Emergency Card stash so I can draw six cards, next I play O – Oversoul to special summon Neos from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Let's go kick my butt." said Neos to Jaden.

"Next I activate the equip spell card Neos Force, thanks to this Neos gets an extra 800 attack points."

(ATK: 3300)

"And now I'll activate another equip spell, Megamorph! Since I have fewer life points than you Neos' original attack points are doubled!"

(ATK: 5800)

"Next I'll play H – Heated Heart, so he gains another 500 attack points!"

(ATK: 6300)

"That's still not enough!"

"I know, which is why I'm activating Graceful Charity, so I may draw three cards from my deck, as long I discard two. Now I activate Magical Stone Excavation, by discarding two more cards I can bring back one spell card that I've used, and the card I choose is Skyscraper!"

"No!"

"Yes, and since Neos has less attack points than your monster, he now gains 1000 attack points!"

(ATK: 7300)

"Neos, attack!"

Neos pounded it's evil self into nothingness.

(Tom: 400)

"And since he was equipped with Neos Force, you take damage equal to your destroyed monster's attack points!"

(Tom: 0)

"NO!!! I HAD EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO WIN!!! MY STRATEGY WAS FLAWLESS!!!"

"Take it easy dude. You win some you lose some, that's how you play the game."

"Err… I WILL NOT BE SECOND TO YOU!!!"

Tom still in the guise of the Supreme King drew a sword and started to charge and Jaden, suddenly he stopped in midair.

"Danger… danger! Overload! OVERLOAD!!!"

Electricity surged across Tom's body, and then he reverted back to his original form and fell to the ground smoking.

"How the…"

Jaden looked up and saw Yubel above him.

"I thought I told you to stay with Sakura."

"Yes, but she told me to come here and save you."

"Well, tell her I said thank you. Right now I've got to stop Billy from reaching the Sacred Beast cards."

**(To be continued)**

**New illustrations available on deviant art**

**Evil Hero Neos**

**Elizabeth Beaufort**

**And**

**Avid Rung Ros**


	9. Bring me to life

Jaden, Zane, Aster, and Jesse stood before the door that led to the Spirit Gate. Chancellor Sheppard had obviously made some improvements to the card's security since the last time they were awakened.

"I don't see any signs of forced entry, hopefully that means the Sacred Beasts are right where they belong."

"We better make sure. Jaden, the only way inside is with the proper seven digit access code. There are ten million possible combinations and it changes daily, but I know what it is."

"Okay Sheppard, what is it?"

"Today's code is 0000001."

"0000001?"

"Yes."

"That's amazing, I've got the exact same combination on my garage door!" said Hassleberry.

"Why on God's green earth did it have to be the Sacred Beast cards?!"

During his freshman year at Duel Academy Jaden defeated the Sacred Beasts using a special card left for him by Professor Banner, but the card disappeared after the duel was over. Years later he fought the Sacred Beasts again, but was only able emerge victorious with the help of his friend Jesse. After Jaden and Yubel had fused he saw to it that the Sacred Beasts were returned to their proper resting place.

"I can't let Billy get his hands on those cards!"

Jaden and the other kept running down the tunnel, but they soon found that someone was in their path.

"Jaden Yuki… We meet at last."

"Elizabeth Beaufort. Get out of the way!"

"I'm sorry but I can't do that… My Billy needs the cards in order to obtain a new body."

"Look lady, Jobs is only using you!" said Aster.

"Using me? How dare you say that! He funded my research, he believed in my work when no one else did. He's the first person to believe in me as much as my dear late mother."

"Oh we know all about you… But you should know there is no way for humans to cheat death! It's only a fantasy!" said Zane.

"You're just as ignorant and blind as the rest… You think there are things we just can't change… Until I try I'll never know... I don't accept limits just because someone says they're so."

"Don't you know what happens when you push limits?" asked Jesse "Eventually you push them too far."

"I don't believe in going too far, no one believes in going too far. The atom bomb, grave robbers, biological warfare, stem cell research, abortion, etcetera. Billy didn't believe in going too far either, that's why he was all too willing to end your precious daughter's life before it even began last year."

"That's horrible! How could you support something like that?!"

"Simple Jaden… It's not my baby, and at the end of the day I just don't care. And for your information it was partially thanks to my experiments with the fragments of unborn fetuses, my observations of decomposing mature human bodies, research in childbirth and more, that I alone was able to discover the secret of restoring life. Now I just need something to stabilize my Billy's new body, and the power of Sacred Beast cards will fit the bill just fine."

"I'VE HEARD ENOUGH! STAND ASIDE!!!"

"I already told you I'm not moving… But I'll have a change of heart if you defeat me in a duel."

"Fine! I'll enjoy thrashing a sick person like you."

Jaden and Elizabeth both activated their duel disks.

"Let's duel!"

"As you know the rules say ladies first. I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"It's my turn then, and I play Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"I'll also summon Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Flame Wingman, attack her face down monster!"

Jaden's Wingman had no trouble destroying Elizabeth's monster, but much to Jaden's surprise her life points didn't drop.

"Shouldn't you have just lost life points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points?"

"Sorry Jaden, but my Flu Virus monster doesn't have any attack or defense points. However it does have a special effect, first you need to randomly discard two cards from your hand, next I get to special summon another virus monster from my hand in face down defense position."

"Then I'll take that one out as well. Sparkman attack!"

Sparkman destroyed Elizabeth's monster , but then a yellow and pink blob attached itself to him.

"What the heck is that?"

"That's an E-Virus counter. When my Escherichia Coli is destroyed in battle, it attaches an E-Virus counter to the monster that destroyed it."

"So what does it do?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Let me get this straight, she's a doctor who wants to find a way for human beings to cheat death?" asked Syrus.

"Pretty much."

"Leave it to Billy Jobs to fall in love with someone even crazier than himself." said Alexis.

"It's my turn again, and I play the spell card Incubation Period! This let's me look at the top five cards of my deck, and if any of them are virus monsters I can special summon them to the field in defense mode. And it looks like I get to summon three monsters. That ends my turn, but soon my monsters will end you."

"We'll see about that, it's my turn!"

Suddenly Jaden's Sparkman started shaking and coughing.

(Jaden: 3500)

"What the?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about the E-Virus counter on your monster. During your standby phase if one of your monsters has one attached to it, you take 500 points of damage."

"Cheap trick, I play the spell card Emergency Card Stash, since there are no other cards in my hand, I can use this spell card to draw six cards from my deck. Next I summon Elemental Hero Woodsman in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 2000)

"And next I'll have Wingman attack one of your face down monsters!"

Jaden's Wingman destroyed Elizabeth's monster, but her life points didn't change.

"Let me guess, another monster with no attack points?"

"Yes, but it does have a special effect."

Suddenly all three of Jaden's monsters started to look green in the face, then they all crumbled to the ground.

"What?!"

"When my Malburg is destroyed it places an M-Virus counter on all the monsters you have out, and the best part is the monsters equipped with these counters can't attack."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Okay, this duel is making me msyophobic." said Aster.

"What the heck does that mean?" asked Jesse.

**(Mysophobia: an irrational fear of dirt, contamination, or in most cases germs)**

"It's my turn again, and I think I'll just summon this monster in defense mode. So I guess it's your turn. But don't forget, during your standby phase the E-Virus counter attached to your Sparkman causes you to lose 500 life points!"

(Jaden: 3000)

"That's not the only thing that happens during my standby phase, since I have Woodsman on the field, I can bring a Polymerization from either my deck or grave to my hand, and I'll use it to fuse Flame Wingman and Sparkman to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Nice move, Jaden traded in two of his infected monsters for one that's clean!"

"Now Flare Wingman gains 300 attack points for every Elemental Hero in my graveyard."

(ATK: 3700)

"Flare Wingman, attack the monster in the middle!"

Jaden knew that since his monster's effect wouldn't work, he'd just have to plow through Elizabeth's monsters to reach her life points.

"Since you just destroyed my Yersinia Pestis you've activated it's effect, now we both look at the top three cards of our decks."

"Okay… so what happens now?"

"Now we send any monster cards we picked up to the graveyard, and to add insult to injury, we lose 500 life points for every monster we discard. Fortunately I didn't pick up any monsters. But it looks like you're not so lucky."

Elizabeth was right, Jaden had picked up three monsters.

(Jaden: 1500)

"But since there are now three more Elemental Heroes in my graveyard my Wingman gains 900 more attack points!"

(ATK: 4600)

"So your monster is a little bit stronger, as long as I've got monsters protecting my life points I don't care. I play the spell card Graceful Charity, this let's me draw three cards as long as I discard two. Next I'll summon a monster in defense mode and call it a turn."

"Then it's my turn again, and since Woodsman is on the field I can bring Polymerization back from my grave to my hand. Next I play Mystic Wok, now by tributing Woodsman I gain life points equal to his defense points!"

(Jaden: 3500)

"Next I play the spell card Foolish Burial, with this I can send Elemental Hero Necroshade from my deck to my graveyard, and since there are two more Elemental Heroes in my graveyard, my Shining Flare Wingman gains another 600 attack points!"

(ATK: 5200)

"But that's not all, since Necroshade is in the graveyard, I can now summon an Elemental Hero without a sacrifice, and the monster I summon is Elemental Hero Bladedge!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1800)

"Bladedge, attack her face down monster on the left!"

Jaden's Bladedge sliced right through Elizabeth's monster.

(Elizabeth: 1400)

"What the?! How did I lose life points just now?!"

"Simple, when Bladedge destroys a defending monster in battle, you take damage equal to the difference in his attack points and your monster's defense points, since your viruses have no defense points, you lost 2600 life points."

"Err… But since you destroyed my Pox, you need to look at the top cards of your deck equal to your monster's level, and any spell or trap cards you pick up are immediately sent to the graveyard."

Jaden had to pick up seven cards, and five of them were spells and traps.

"It was worth it, to take more than half your life points with one attack. Wingman, attack the monster on the right!"

The attack was successful and Elizabeth's monsters were destroyed, but when the smoke cleared Jaden saw that both his monsters were itching crusty sores that had appeared on their bodies.

"What the heck is this?"

"My diagnosis, your monsters have Hansen's disease."

"Whose disease?"

"It means you have leprosy."

"Leprosy?!"

"Yes, by destroying my Mycobacterium Leprae, all your monster get an L-Virus counter attached to them, and as a result they can't use their special effects. So your Wingman's attack points drop to their original value."

(ATK: 2500)

"Sam hill!" said Hassleberry "This means the sarge can't use Bladedge's effect to take out the rest of her life points."

"Tell us something we don't know."

"Wait boss, if I remember correctly the lepers were cured by some bearded dude!" said Chazz's Ojama Yellow.

"It's my turn again. First I'll summon a monster in defense mode, next I'll activate two continuous spells cards, HIV and AIDS!"

Suddenly Jaden's monsters looked a lot sicker.

"As long as HIV is on the field, the attack and defense points of all face up monsters that aren't viruses are cut in half!"

(ATK: 1250 DEF: 1050)

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 900)

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"What are you complaining to me for? I don't make the cards, I just use them. Besides, what do attack and defense points matter to you? All my virus monster's don't have any."

"Fine, well it's my turn now!"

"I know, so the effect of AIDS activates, during each of our standby phases, we take damage equal to the number of non virus monsters we have out multiplied by 500."

(Jaden: 2500)

"Err… You know I'm getting really sick of these cards."

Suddenly Jesse started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Sick, germs, viruses, that's a joke Jay, and you missed it!"

"Okay… I play the spell card Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two cards, next I'll throw down two face downs and summon Elemental Hero Knospe!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1000)

"Next I activate the spell card Rose Bud! Now by tributing Knospe, I can summon Elemental Hero Poison Rose from my deck!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 2000)

"Don't forget, thanks to the effect of HIV, your monster loses half it's attack points and defense points!"

(ATK: 950 DEF: 1000)

"Shoot, I did forget about that, if that wasn't in play I could have destroyed both her monsters then won with a direct attack… Oh well. Flare Wingman attack!"

Jaden's Wingman's moves were sluggish, but it was able to destroy Elizabeth's monster.

"By destroying my Cholera, you've activated its special effect, now you take 100 points of damage multiplied by your monster's level!"

(Jaden: 1700)

"Err… Now Bladedge attack her other monster!"

When Bladedge attacked, all the monsters on the field were destroyed.

"What the?!"

"By destroying my Ebola monster, you set off its special effect, which wipes out every monster in play."

"Okay… now I'm **really** getting sick of these viruses. I guess I'll end my turn by playing Mirage of Nightmare and a face down."

"I guess Billy won't need to fight you after all, I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees that I've beaten you myself."

"Don't forget, it's your turn so my Mirage of Nightmare let's me draw until I have four cards in my hand, next I'll activate my Emergency Provisions and destroy Mirage so I gain back 1000 life points."

(Jaden: 2700)

"As if it will matter, if you think my virus monsters were bad, they're nothing compared to what you're about to see."

"Come on, what could possibly be worse?"

"I'll show you, I remove my Flu Virus, Escherichia Coli, Marburg, Yersinia Pestis, Pox, Mycobacterium Leprae, Cholera, and Ebola from play, so I can special summon the card that Billy gave me, Avid Rung Ros!!!"

Suddenly tiny green particles engulfed the arena, and they seemed to merge into what appeared to be huge dragon walking on all fours.

"Holy flurking shnit!!! What is that thing?!" exclaimed Crowler.

"Whatever it is it's hideous!" said Jasmine.

"And disgusting!" said Mindy.

"Incase you're wondering, my Avid Rung Ros is a dragon made entirely of germs and viruses."

(ATK: ? DEF: ?)

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but why aren't its attack and defense points determined?"

"Simple, Avid Rung Ros can only be special summoned by removing viruses from my graveyard, I'm only required to remove two, but I removed eight since his attack and defense points are equal to the number of viruses I remove times 500."

(ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000)

"I knew I wasn't going to like the answer…"

"Oh there's one thing I forgot to mention, Avid Rung Ros can also attack you as many times per turn for each of the monsters used to summon him, so he gets eight attacks, but since he has 4000 attack points and you have only 2700 life points and no monsters I only need one… Avid Rung Ros, attack!"

Elizabeth's Avid Rung Ros fired a cloud of bacteria from it's mouth in Jaden's direction.

"Not so fast! I activate the trap card Negate Attack!"

Avid Rung Ros' attack was stopped just before it touched Jaden.

"Now it doesn't matter if your monster can attack a million times, because the battle phase is over."

"Very well then, I'll just wipe you out on my next turn."

Jaden drew his card.

"Sorry, but there is no next turn for you, because I play Miracle Fusion, and I'll remove the Elemental Heroes Heat and Lady Heat in my graveyard from play in order to summon Elemental Hero Inferno!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1600)

"And I'll equip him with the spell card Assualt Armor, next I'll send the card to my graveyard, now he can attack twice this turn."

"It doesn't matter how many times he can attack, my Avid Rung Ros had more attack points! And since I still have HIV on the field your monster is about to get even weaker!"

"I don't think so, not when I activate my face down trap, DNA Surgery, this changes all monsters on the field into whatever type I choose, and I choose Machines!"

Jaden's Inferno transformed into a metallic version of itself, and it's attack points didn't drop at all.

"What?!"

"I had my friends do a little research on your deck Elizabeth, and it turns out your viruses can't effect machine monsters since they aren't technically living creatures."

"Fine whatever… On my next turn my Avid Rung Ros will destroy you anyway!"

"Like I said, there is no next turn for you. I play the equip spell Ax of Despair, this give my Inferno an extra 1000 attack points!"

(ATK: 3300)

"That's still not enough."

"I know, which is why I'm activating the field spell Skyscraper! And since my Inferno has less attack points than your monster, he gains 1000 extra points!"

(ATK: 4300)

"Inferno, attack!"

Elizabeth's Avid Rung Ros went up in flames.

(Elizabeth: 1100)

"And since I sent Assault Armor to the graveyard earlier this turn, my monster can attack again!"

(Elizabeth: 0)

As soon as Elizabeth's life points hit zero Jaden, Jesse, Zane, and Aster rushed past her and further down the tunnel until they finally came to the place where the Sacred Beast cards would be.

"Step away from the cards you!"

"Too late hero dudes, the metal dude with bad karma already took them."

"What the… Belowski?"

"Crowler put me down here to help protect the beasts from those uncool people… I tried reasoning with him saying that he was riding some serious negative waves and I had cosmic jurisdiction to assign mantras, but before I could do that I told him he needed a major cosmic cleansing and total clearing of the shockras. But he was all no…"

"I didn't understand a word you said the whole time." said Aster.

"This is bad." said Zane "Very bad."

Jaden and the others raced back to the Obelisk Blue dorm to regroup, and when they got there the whole island started to shake.

"What's happening?! What is this?!"

"It must be Billy!"

Almost as quickly as it came the rumbling stopped. For about thirty minutes everything was quiet, then fireworks could be heard going on outside. That's when they heard Billy's voice over the P.A., only it no longer sounded deep and mechanical.

"Da-dah-da-da-da-dah! JADEN! I know it's been a long hard night, but good news! It's time for the main event and everyone is invited! Two duelists in an all out one on one fight to the death, featuring the Sacred Beast cards. You don't want to miss it, so everyone get your rear ends over to the stadium at the volcano or I'll blow up the island for real!"

"The volcano? But we don't have a stadium at the volcano." said Sheppard.

"You do now."

**(To be continued)**

**That's right everyone**

**The final fight begins in**

**Chapter 10: A friend in need.**


	10. A Friend in Need

"Just when you think things can't get any worse." said Jaden "It's bad enough that Billy Jobs is back, even worse now that he's got his hands on the Sacred Beast cards."

"Jaden you've beaten the cards before, you can beat them again." said Alexis.

"The first time it was because Banner left me Sabatiel The Philosopher's Stone, but that card's gone, and the second time I fought them I only won because I had Jesse there to help me, and that lunatic said this duel was going to be one on one."

Suddenly everyone heard a helicopter flying overhead, someone was landing on the island.

"Oh great, what now?"

"Wait a minute… That's the Industrial Illusions logo!"

"Industrial Illusions? Could it be…"

Within moments of the copter's landing someone came running out.

"Jaden!"

"Chumley! What are you doing here?!"

"Incase you've forgotten Billy Jobs is broadcasting this whole thing around the world, it's on every station, as soon as I heard that the bombs were fake I came right over… Is that your daughter?"

"Yeah, that's little Sakura… but now's really not the time for introductions."

"I know, you've got a big duel coming up, but don't worry, I've prepared something for just such an emergency."

"You're prepared for Billy Jobs, back from the dead, and armed with the Sacred Beast cards?" asked Chazz.

"That is correct."

"How do you plan for that?"

"Uh… lucky guess. As I was saying, you better take these."

Chumley handed Jaden eight cards, and they smelled brand new.

**(Yes there is a smell, I'd know it anywhere)**

"Fresh off the press, each of them one of a kind, I made them just for you."

"Wow… Thanks Chumley, you're a real life saver."

"Attention Jaden Yuki. If you are not at the arena in fifteen minutes, you're disqualified!" said Elizabeth over the P.A.

"We better get over there; I'll add these babies to my deck on the way."

When Jaden and the others made it to the volcano they found a tunnel that wasn't there before, they followed it until they came to the stadium Billy spoke of.

"Okay… of all his insane ideas, this one takes the cake." said Zane.

The arena was suspended over the lava and stone seats filled with the students who had already arrived lined the walls. Etched into the walls of the volcano were skulls and images of the three Sacred Beasts. There was also a huge scoreboard with a big TV screen.

"Nice, cozy, cheerful." said Aster.

In the middle of the arena was wooden coffin, as soon as Jaden entered the arena a light shone on it.

"Ladies and gentlemen… the new Billy Jobs!" said Elizabeth.

The coffin lid slowly opened, but the person who came out didn't look anything like the Billy Jobs Jaden remembered. Billy Jobs was small thin boy with glasses and red hair, this guy looked like a Z Fighter from Dragon Ball Z.

"Is that… him?" asked Syrus.

"If it is, he must be on steroids or something." said Chazz.

"Don't let my new look fool you Jaden, I am the one and only Billy Jobs. But thanks to the efforts of my dear Elizabeth I have a much better body. Now I have the three B's for the perfect life. Brains, brawn, and bucks."

"Yes, but can you dance?" asked Atticus.

Billy stood in the middle of the spotlight and started to do an Irish river dance.

"Yes."

"Wow."

"I finally have everything I need to live happily ever after, just me and my Elizabeth… I just have to do one thing…"

"Listen to me Bill, I'm only going to say this once. You don't want to mess with those Sacred Beast cards. You're playing with fire!"

"Jaden, I've been playing with fire since I was a little boy. Besides, the beasts and I have so much in common, we both hate you. And you should be glad; this time the only thing on the line is your life. Now let's get this show on the road."

"Attention ladies and gentlemen!" said Elizabeth "The one on one duel to the death between Jaden Yuki, and the brilliant Billy Jobs is about to begin! The crowd is going wild with anticipation!"

"Yay…"

It had been a long night, and most of the students, teachers, and alumni were tired.

"Louder!"

"Yay…"

"Louder!"

"Yay…"

"Oooiiieee…" said Billy slapping his forehead.

"What's oooiiieee?" asked Jaden.

"You know, it's the thing you say when you feel stupid."

"No that's d'oh."

"Whatever, let's just duel."

Jaden and Billy activated their duel disks.

"Let's duel!"

"Since you're at a disadvantage in so many ways Jaden, I'll let you go first."

"Fine with me! I play the spell card Convert Contact! Since there I no monsters on my field I can send one Neo-Spacian from my hand and one from my deck to the graveyard, then I get to draw two cards. Next I'll summon Elemental Hero Lady Heat!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 1000)

"I'll end my turn with a face down, and during my end phase Lady Heat's effect activates, causing you to lose 200 life points for every Elemental Hero I have out."

(Billy: 3800)

"Nice job Sarge!" said Hassleberry "The first blood is yours!"

"Yes, but the duel will be mine." said Billy "I think I'll just place three cards face down."

"Three face down cards but no Sacred Beast?" asked Syrus.

"Maybe he hasn't drawn one yet." said Blair.

"Let's hope so, in the meantime it's Jaden's turn."

"Let's see… If I'm lucky I can wipe Bill out this turn." thought Jaden "I summon Elemental Hero Heat in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)

"Elemental Hero Heat gains 200 attack points for every Elemental Hero I have out, and right now there are two!"

(ATK: 2000)

"Next I play H – Heated Heart, so Hero Heat gains another 500 attack points!"

(ATK: 2500)

"Elemental Hero Heat, attack him directly!"

"Not so fast Jaden, I activate the trap card Gravity Bind!"

"Oh great…"

"That's right, as long as this continuous trap card is on the field, monsters that are level 4 or higher can't attack."

"Well, I guess I'll just throw down a face down. And since there are two Elemental Heroes on the field, Lady Heat inflicts 400 points of damage to your life points."

(Billy: 3400)

"It's my turn, and I activate my two face down Solemn Wishes trap cards! Since I have two of these, whenever I draw from my deck, like right now, I gain 1000 life points!"

(Billy: 4400)

"Now I play the spell card Hand Destruction, this forces us both to discard two cards from our hands, then we draw two cards from our decks. And since I just drew from my deck again, I gain another 1000 life points!"

(Billy: 5400)

"And now I sacrifice my three traps cards in order to summon the first Sacred Beast, Uria Lord of Searing Flames!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

All the students and alumni who had never seen a Sacred Beast before gasped as Uria rose up out of the lava.

"As I'm sure you know, Uria gains 1000 attack points for every continuous trap card in my graveyard. I sent two there when I played Hand Destruction, and I sent three more to summon him."

(ATK: 5000)

"Next I activate the continuous spell card Archfiend's Oath, once a turn I can pay 500 life points to use this card. If I do I can guess the card at the top of my deck, if I'm right it goes to my hand, if not it goes to the graveyard."

"Well what are the odds of that?"

"Pretty good, once I play this."

"What is that?!"

"The continuous spell card Convulsion of Nature! Now we're both required to flip our decks upside down!"

"Upside down? What's the point in that?" asked Jaden.

"You are slow on uptake. Now we'll always know what card we're going to draw next!"

"Oh boy."

"I pay 500 life points to activate Archfiend's Oath!"

(Billy: 4900)

"The card is Vengeful Bog Spirit."

"That's another continuous spell card." thought Jaden "If Billy draws Hamon he'll have everything he needs to summon it… I can't let that happen."

"I activate Uria's special ability, and I'll use it to destroy one of your face down cards."

Uria blew away one of Jaden's cards.

"Now Uria, attack Lady Heat! Hyper Blaze!"

"Not so fast Bill! I activate Hero Barrier! If there's an Elemental Hero on the field, I can use this card to negate one of your attacks!"

"Err… You've only postponed the inevitable Jaden, one way or another, I will be the one who stands victorious!"

"Yay…" said the audience sarcastically.

"I can't hear you!"

"Yay…"

"The next time I want to be alone, I'll call you guys." said Billy.

**(To be continued)**

**New Illustration Available on Deviantart**

**Billy's new bod**


	11. The Wrath of Billy

"Ladies and gentlemen, with his brilliant strategies Jaden is keeping Billy and the mighty Uria Lord of Searing Flames at bay, but the question is for how long? For how long?!"

"Atti, you're my brother and I love you, but will you please shut up!" said Alexis.

"Hurry up and make your move slacker, these people haven't got all night!" said Billy.

"Are you still babbling about things as insignificant as what dorm I used to live in? You're even more childish than I thought."

"Just make your move so Elizabeth and I can have our happily ever after!"

"Someone is eager to lose. I play the spell card Pot of Greed to draw two cards, next I'll switch both Elemental Hero Heat and Lady Heat to defense mode, and summon Elemental Hero Knospe!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1000)

"Since I have more Elemental Heroes on my field besides Knospe, you can't select him as an attack target, and he can attack you directly!"

(Billy: 4300)

"And when Knospe deals damage his second effect activates, now he loses 100 defense points, but gains 100 attack points!"

(ATK: 700 DEF: 900)

"And now I'll activate the spell card Dark Designator! Now I get to declare the name of one card, and if it happens to be in your deck then it's automatically added to your hand, and I choose Hamon Lord of Striking Thunder!"

Billy took the card from his deck and added it to his hand.

"What is Jaden thinking?!" exclaimed Chazz "Why would he play a card that lets Billy bring a Sacred Beast card to his hand when he has everything he needs to summon it?!"

"He did what?!" asked Blair.

"And you're being so helpful why?"

"I'm not." said Jaden "I activate the spell card Exchange!"

"No! Not that!"

"Yes, that. Now we both get to take a card from our opponent's hand."

Jaden walked over to Billy and took Hamon from his hand.

"I'll take that, and you can take this." he said handing him Elemental Hero Ocean, the only card in his hand.

"That was brilliant." said Zane "Now as long as he keeps Hamon in his hand, Billy can't touch it."

"That's my Jaden." said Alexis.

"And now I'll end my turn, so Elemental Hero Lady Heat's effect activates dealing 200 points of damage to you for every Elemental Hero on my field."

(Billy: 3700)

"Err… Our hatred for you has made a bond between me and the Sacred Beasts Jaden, you can't keep Hamon from me forever!"

"Yeah sure, just make your move."

"I activate the effect of Archfiend's Oath, now by paying 500 life points I can guess the top card of my deck."

(Billy: 3200)

"And thanks to my Convulsion of Nature, I know that it is the continuous trap Cloak and Dagger. Now Uria, destroy his Lady Heat!"

Uria blasted Jaden's monster into nothingness.

"It's my turn! And I'll attack you directly again with Knospe!"

(Billy: 2500)

"Now he loses 100 defense points, and gains 100 more attack points!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"It's my turn! And once again I'll pay 500 life points to activate Archfiend's Oath and draw Skill Drain!"

(Billy: 2000)

"Uria, attack!"

Uria blew away Jaden's Elemental Hero Heat.

"It's my turn again! First I'll switch Knospe to defense mode, next I'll place a card face down and play Mirage of Nightmare."

"It's my turn, I draw!"

"Now my Mirage activates, enabling me to draw until I have four cards in my hand, next I'll activate my face down Emergency Provisions to ditch Mirage and gain 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 5000)

"You'll need them Jaden, I'll use Archfiend's Oath to draw Mirror Wall!"

(Billy: 1500)

"Uria, attack and destroy his Elemental Hero Knospe!"

Needless to say Jaden's monster went up in smoke.

"And with that I'll end my turn, and since there are seven cards in my hand I need to discard one, and I think I'll discard Mirror Wall so Uria gains another 1000 attack points."

(ATK: 6000)

"It doesn't matter how many points that thing has." said Syrus "Billy has still used up more than half his life points, and Jaden hasn't lost any!"

"Hmm… Maybe he doesn't need my cards after all." said Chumley.

"Okay Bill it's my turn, and I think I'll just summon a monster in defense mode."

Billy drew his card, and smiled.

"I activate Card Destruction, this forces us both to discard all the cards in our hands to the graveyard and draw cards equal to the amount of cards we discarded, and when monsters obtained via Exchange are sent to the graveyard, they are sent to their owner's graveyard, so you get back your Elemental hero, and I get back Hamon!"

"Not good." said Jesse.

"And since I just sent four trap cards to the graveyard, Uria gains 4000 more attack points!"

(ATK: 10,000)

"Next I activate the continuous spell card Recycle, and now I'll activate Monster Reincarnation, by discarding one card I can bring one monster card in my graveyard back from my graveyard to my hand, and I think you know which monster I want."

Hamon returned to Billy's hand.

"I told you nothing could break our bond of hatred, and since I sent Curse of Darkness to the graveyard with Monster Reincarnation, Uria gains 1000 more attack points!"

(ATK: 11,000)

"11,000 points?! That's nuts!" said Jasmine.

"And now I'll sacrifice Archfiend's Oath, Convulsion of Nature, and Recycle to summon Hamon Lord of Striking Thunder!"

(ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000)

"Hamon, attack and destroy his face down monster with Cerulean Sky Fire!"

Hamon blasted Jaden's monster destroying it.

"And as I'm sure you know, when Hamon destroys a monster in battle, you lose 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 4000)

"The great Billy Jobs is making a comeback!" said Elizabeth over the speakers "And the crowd is electrified!"

The audience was silent.

"I said… The crowd is electrified!"

In response to Elizabeth's statement Hamon fired a mild blast of electricity at the audience.

"YAY!!!" they exclaimed.

"Ooo… I like that." said Billy.

"Nice special effect, but I've got one too. When my Dandylion is sent to the graveyard, I can summon two fluff tokens to take its place!"

(2x ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"It's too bad they don't stand a chance against my Sacred Beasts! Uria, attack!"

Uria blasted one of Jaden's fluff tokens.

"It's my turn! I activate the spell card Monster Reborn, and I'll use it to bring back Hero Kid from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 600)

"Let me guess, he was sent there when I played Card Destruction."

"Yes, and when he's special summoned, I can special summon every other Hero Kid in my deck."

(2x ATK: 300 DEF: 600)

"And I'll sacrifice two of my Hero Kids so I can summon Yubel!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"Uba! Uba!"

Yubel waved at Sakura and turned to Jaden.

"Alright Jaden, let's go kick some sacred butt."

"I'll end my turn by sacrificing my last Hero Kid to keep Yubel in play."

"If you think your precious guardian angel will be enough to protect you, think again. I summon Phantom Skyblaster!"

(ATK: 1100 DEF: 800)

"And thanks to its special effect I can now summon two Skyblaster Tokens!"

(2x ATK: 500 DEF: 500)

"And since they're all fiends I can now sacrifice them to special summon my third and final Sacred Beast, Raviel, Lord of Phantasms!"

(ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000)

"Here we go again; I'm staring down all three Sacred Beasts for the third time."

"Bring it on." said Yubel.

"I know very well that if I attack your precious Yubel with any of my three beasts I'll only wipe myself out, but there is still presently one other target for me to pick. Hamon, destroy his final fluff token!"

Hamon blasted the fluff token away with its cerulean sky fire.

"And since I just destroyed another one of your monsters with Hamon, you lose another 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 3000)

"And I'll end my turn with a face down."

"It's my turn, and I play Graceful Charity, this lets me draw three cards from my deck."

Jaden drew his cards.

"Okay, if this works I can end this duel right now."

"Well then by all means play it Jaden, these people haven't got all night."

"Okay… I play Revoke Fusion! By discarding a Polymerization card from my hand, I can send one monster in my fusion deck to the graveyard and special summon from my hand a fusion material monster that is listed on that card. I'll send Chaos Neos to the graveyard so that I can special summon my Elemental Hero Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Next I play Miracle Fusion, and I'll use it to fuse the Neos on my field with the Elemental Hero Heat, Elemental Hero Ocean, Neo-Spacian Dark Panther, and Neo-Spacian Glow Moss, to summon Elemental Hero Divine Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2500)

"And now I'll activate the spell card Emergency Card Stash, since there are no other cards in my hand, I can now draw six cards from my deck, I just need another Hero…"

Jaden drew his cards.

"I summon Elemental Hero Avian!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"And since you just normal summoned a monster, I can use Raviel's effect to summon a Phantasm token."

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"And now I'll activate Divine Neos' special effect! By removing Elemental Hero Knospe from play, he gains his special effect and 500 attack points!"

(ATK: 3000)

"And since I have another Elemental Hero in play, Divine Neos can use Knospe's effect to attack you directly!"

Neos started to fly at Billy.

"I activate my face down trap, Divine Wrath! By discarding on card from my hand I can negate your monster's effect and automatically destroy it!"

Everyone watched in horror as Neos was struck by lightening and sank into the lava.

"Oh boy… I guess I'll end my turn by sacrificing Avian to keep Yubel in play."

"It's my turn, and I'll use my Pot of Greed to draw two cards. Next I'll place a card face down. And now I'll remove Uria, Hamon, and Raviel from play in order to summon the ultimate Sacred Beast… Armityle the Chaos Phantom!!!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

Everyone's jaws dropped when Armityle emerged.

"What in the world?!"

"But… It's got no attack points." said Hassleberry.

"Don't worry, Armityle's bite is as bad as his bark. You can't destroy it in battle, and during my turn its attack points increase to 10,000!"

(ATK: 10,000)

"Next I play the equip spell card Unholy Powers from beyond!"

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" asked Jaden.

"This card allows Armityle to copy the special effect of one of the Sacred Beasts I have removed from play to summon it once per turn, and this turn I choose Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, and I'll use it to tribute the token I have out to give its points to Armityle!"

(ATK: 11,000)

"Eleven thousand?!" exclaimed Mindy.

"But it doesn't matter if its attack points are eleven million." said Alexis "As long as Yubel is in play, if Billy attacks her he'll just wipe himself out."

"I know your little guardian angel will protect you from even Armityle's assault Jaden, so I'll just have to remove her from the equation… I play the spell card Raigeki!!!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes!"

Yubel screamed in pain as she was struck by lightning from the sky. When the smoke cleared she was gone, and Jaden could hear Sakura crying. He also saw that both Billy and Armityle's eyes were glowing.

"We've both waited a long time for this Jaden, the ultimate Sacred Beast and I… are about to turn your game off… Armityle… ATTACK!!!"

Armityle fired its attack at Jaden and there was a huge explosion of dark energy.

"NO!"

"JADEN!!!"

"MWAH-HA-AH-AH-HA-AH-AH!!!"

**(To be continued)**


	12. Faith in a friend

Sakura was still crying, that's when Yubel appeared beside her.

"It's okay Sakura, I'm still here, and so is your father."

When the smoke cleared Jaden was still standing, and his life points were untouched.

"Let me guess. Necro Gardna?" said Billy.

"That's right, you sent him to the graveyard when you played Hand Destruction."

"I'm not surprised, after all I've watched you for almost a year since Elizabeth brought me back, and I know that you never defeated the Sacred Beasts without help. And thanks to all my hard work I've already taken out your best cards."

"Know thine enemy eh? Then you should know that Yubel and Divine Neos were only two of my best cards, seems you're forgetting someone."

"What to do you mean?"

"Remember our last duel?"

"NO! YOU DON'T MEAN…"

"That's right, let me reintroduce you to my little friend, Winged Kuriboh!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 200)

Much to everyone's surprise, Billy seemed to be terrified of the little fur ball with wings.

"What's he so afraid of?" asked Crowler.

"Don't you remember Crowler? Winged Kuriboh is how Jaden beat Billy in their last duel, and as a result he got his head bitten off by crocodiles." said Sheppard.

"Only this time there are no crocodiles, they're just dueling over a lake of hot molten lava."

Billy shook off the fear he was feeling and tried to focus.

"I activate the trap card Anti-Spell Fragrance! From now on we both need to play our spell cards face down, and we can't use them until our next turn."

For a moment Jaden just looked at the cards in his hand.

"Okay, well in that case I'll just attack Armityle with Winged Kuriboh!"

"What?! What is he thinking?!" said Chazz.

"Will you relax? Look." said Aster.

(ATK: 0)

"Armityle only gains 10,000 attack points during its owner's turn, during the opponent's turn it goes back to zero."

Armityle roared at Winged Kuriboh, but the little guy wasn't scared at all. He just flew up to the ultimate Sacred Beast's face and swiped his claws across its eyes.

"Have you forgotten? Armityle can't be destroyed in battle!"

"Maybe not, but you'll still take some damage."

(Billy: 1200)

Everyone started to applaud, and Winged Kuriboh actually took a bow.

"I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

"Billy… Billy… Billy…"

Billy looked down and saw what appeared to be a face in the lava, an evil grinning face.

"Did you really think you could escape me? No one ever escapes from me. All your little girlfriend did was buy you time…"

Billy ignored it and tried to think.

"One of those cards he played must be Transcendent Wings, and the other is obviously a decoy, but which one?"

Thanks to Unholy Powers from Beyond Billy could destroy one spell or trap card on Jaden's field, but if he didn't get Transcendent Wings then Jaden could activate it during his battle phase and use it to summon Winged Kuriboh LV 10, who could then be used to destroy Armityle and wipe out the rest of his life points.

"Okay… It's decision time… I activate the effect of my Unholy Powers from Beyond! And I'll use it to copy Uria's trap destruction effect! Armityle, destroy the card on the right!"

The card revealed itself before it was destroyed.

"YES!!! Armityle, destroy Winged Kuriboh!"

Since Armityle got its 10,000 attack points back it was no trouble at all.

"Don't forget, the turn in which Winged Kuriboh is destroyed I don't take any damage!"

"It doesn't matter, that card was your last hope. And just to show you how hopeless it is I'll play this card face down."

"Winged Kuriboh, Yubel, and Divine Neos… that is just about everything but the kitchen sink." said Jesse.

Alexis hated to admit it, but this was starting to look a lot like the time she and Jaden dueled on their wedding night, the only time she had actually beat him fair and square. But back then she and Jaden were just dueling for fun, here Jaden's life was on the line.

"Jaden! If you have that card, now is the time!" said Chumley.

"What exactly do the cards you gave him do?" asked Zane.

"I can't tell you, it'll spoil the surprise."

Jaden just looked at his friends and gave them a thumbs up.

"Here it comes!"

"Okay Chumley… Let's see what these cards of yours can do… I activate my face down spell card, Elemental Hero Special Forces!"

"What? I've never seen that card before, what is that?!" exclaimed Billy.

"It's brand new, and it's from my good friend Chumley."

"What does it do?"

"Well, first I can only use this card when you have a level nine or higher monster on your side of the field, such as your Armityle, next I need to pay half my life points."

(Jaden: 1500)

"Now I can special summon five monsters that have Elemental Hero and Force in their names from my hand, deck, or graveyard!"

"Force?"

"Yes, hence the name Special Forces. They're five armored vehicles piloted by my Elemental Heroes. Now let's get this show on the road. From my graveyard I special summon two monsters that you sent there with Card Destruction, Elemental Hero Defender Turtle Force!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 3000)

"Elemental Hero High Speed Pursuit Tiger Force!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1000)

"And now from my hand I special summon Elemental Hero Aqua Ambush Shark Force!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 800)

"Elemental Hero Aerial Attack Phoenix Force!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 500)

"And last but certainly not least, from my deck I special summon Elemental Hero Heavy Frontline Assault Dragon Force!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2800)

Everyone was staring in amazement at Jaden's new cards.

"Way to go Chumley." said Alexis.

"Yes! Now that Jaden can attack Billy with any one of those five monsters, and since Armityle's attack points have gone back to zero, he'll wipe out the rest of his life points!"

"Not if I can help it! I activate the trap card Spirit Barrier! From now on as long as I have a monster on the field, all battle damage I take is reduced to zero!"

Jaden checked his monster's effects, unfortunately Phoenix Force's effect could only destroy set spell or trap cards, and none of the other had a special ability to automatically destroy a monster.

"For all your big talk I'm still going to win this duel!" laughed Billy "On my next turn I'll attack with Armityle and wipe out anyone of your monster's and the rest of your life points, then you'll plunge straight into Hell! MWAH-HA-AH-AH-HA-AH-AH!!!"

**(To be continued)**

**New Illustrations available**

**All of Jaden's new cards.**


	13. The Ultimate Weapon of Heroes

"Heather! Heather!"

"Johnny!"

Heather Rasun and John Laughton embraced each other. With the duel going on at the volcano the two of them had been forgotten.

"Heather, the cops are on their way here, what are we going to do to?!"

"Don't worry John, I've prepared for something like this. I've got a safe house on an uncharted island with enough provisions to get us by till the heat is off. Then we can be married."

"But what if they find us before we get there?"

"Don't worry, we just need disguises. And being a super model makeup is one of my strong suits."

When Heather was done she gave John a mirror to look at himself with.

"I look like a leper."

"That's the idea." she said while putting on a blonde wig "If we get pulled over we'll just tell them that I'm a nurse taking you to leper colony. They'll never inspect someone they think has a contagious disease."

"But what about Billy?"

"We've paid out life debts to him, now let's get out of here before we're sentenced to life."

"That's why I love you." he said.

"Chumley, I could use a little help here."

"Well, since Billy has Spirit Barrier in play, the individual effects of the Hero Forces aren't of much use."

"Then why did you give him the stinking cards?! That's my husband out there!" said Alexis.

"I wasn't finished."

"… Sorry… please continue."

"As I was saying Jaden… Their individual effects aren't much use to you right now, but since you have all five of them on the field, you can join them together to form a giant robot with the power to take on Armityle."

"You're kidding right?" said Chazz "These form a what?"

"A giant robot."

The five armored vehicles tried arranging themselves from tallest to smallest, when that didn't work they tried arranging themselves in a shape the remotely looked something like a robot.

"Chumley this is ridiculous." said Alexis "Jaden's never going to get a robot out of these, they don't even fit together!"

"She's right, and I don't have a Polymerization in my hand."

"You don't need one! Just remove them from play!"

"Okay, let's try this again…" said Jaden "I remove my five Elemental Hero Forces from play to summon Elemental Hero Battle-Bot Titanus!"

Suddenly the eyes on all five of the armored vehicles started to glow.

"Titanus battle sequence has been initiated." they all said.

Heavy Frontline Assault Dragon jumped into the air and morphed into what appeared to be a head, torso, and upped legs. Defender Turtle retreated into its shell which split in two to form the lower legs and feet. Both Aqua Ambush Shark and High Speed Pursuit Tiger morphed to form arms, and finally Aerial Attack Phoenix morphed to form a simple pair of wings. Then the pieces all came together.

"Elemental Hero Battle-Bot Titanus activated!" it said as its eyes lit up.

(ATK: 5000 DEF: 5000)

Everyone looked on in amazement at Jaden's monster.

"Oh crud." said Billy.

"Sam hill!" exclaimed Hassleberry.

"Now that's what I call a machine monster." said Zane.

"I've got to get my Destiny Heroes one of those." said Aster.

Now the audience was full of applause, and Sakura was applauding as well.

"Alright Titanus, let's get this over with so I can eat my dinner! Attack Armityle!"

Titanus charged over and hit the ultimate Sacred Beast with a sucker punch, but nothing happened.

"You forget slacker, my Sacred Beast can't be destroyed in battle, and thanks to my Spirit Barrier my life points are safe. You wasted your turn, and now you're going to pay for it with your life points! Armityle, attack!"

"I activate Titanus' special ability!"

Titanus was struck by Armityle's attack, but when the smoke cleared there wasn't a scratch on him, or on Jaden's life points.

"WHAT!?!"

"Whoa, that deserves an instant replay." said Elizabeth.

"Titanus' special effect lets me prevent him from being removed from the field once for every Elemental Hero in my graveyard, and if I'm using this effect to prevent him from being destroyed in battle I can also negate all damage I would normally take as a result of that battle to zero."

"Wait a minute that means… Does anyone else know how many Elemental Heroes are in his graveyard? I lost track." said Billy.

"Let me see…"

Elizabeth started reviewing the entire duel.

"I count eight."

"He can save his monster eight times?!"

"Yes, and I only used one just now, that leaves you seven more to go."

Jaden drew his card.

"I activate the spell card…"

"I don't think so slacker! Have you forgotten about my Anti-Spell Fragrance? As long as it's on the field you have to play your spells face down and can't activate them until your next turn."

"Shoot, I did forget about that. Well in that case I'll place this card face down and attack with Titanus!"

Titanus actually kicked Armityle this time, but like last time nothing happened.

"You know that doesn't do any good."

"Yeah, but I score this awesome new monster and you think I'm just going to have him stand there gathering dust all day?"

"Whatever. It's my turn! I'll place two cards face down and activate the effect of Unholy Powers from Beyond! With this Armityle can copy the special effect of one of the sacred beasts I have removed from play, and I choose Uria's trap destruction effect!"

Jaden's face down card was destroyed.

"Shoot, and I really could've used that R – Righteous Justice."

"Armityle attack!"

"Titanus, shields up!"

Once again Titanus had survived the ultimate Sacred Beast's onslaught.

"Two down, six to go." thought Billy.

"Chumley, Titanus is holding his own, but we can't do this forever!"

"No problem Jaden. Just use the Destructo-Sword."

"The what?"

"Use Titanus' Destructo-Sword!"

Titanus started searching himself looking for the sword.

"Chumley, I don't think he has a Destructo-Sword."

"It's the equip spell I gave you!"

"Oh… uh… I don't have that card in my hand right now."

"Then you'll just have to hold out until you draw it."

"It's alright Jaden, thanks to Titanus' effect you still have six turns to draw it!" said Syrus.

"Okay. Titanus, attack!"

Titanus started punching at Armityle as if it were Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

"And it's a left, and a right, left, right, It's amazing! Armityle is withstanding the blows! How much more punishment can the ultimate Sacred Beast take?!"

"Will you shut up?" said Chazz to Atticus.

"It's my turn! And I activate the continuous trap card Blind Destruction! During my Standby Phase I get to roll a six sided die, and if it lands on a six I can use it to destroy your precious robot!"

Billy threw the die and let it roll.

"Looks like it's my lucky day."

A beam of energy was fired at Jaden's monster.

"Titanus, shields up!"

"That's three, and I'm about to make it four! I activate my face down spell card, Tribute to the Doomed!"

"Titanus, shields!"

"One more time, Armityle attack!"

"Titanus, shields up!"

"Okay… maybe he has less than six turns." said Syrus.

For the next two turns Armityle and Titanus were fighting away at each other.

"Okay… It's my turn, and Titanus can only block one more attack. Deck don't fail me now!"

Jaden closed his eyes and drew.

"He's smiling!" said Blair.

"It is of no matter!" said Billy "Even if you did draw your special card you need to set it and can't play it until your next turn thanks to my Anti-Spell Fragrance, and thanks to my Unholy Powers from Beyond I can destroy it before that happens!"

"Well in that case… I'll throw down three face downs!" said Jaden.

"What?!"

"That's right, three cards, and you only get one shot. The Destructo-Sword is under one of those cards, but which one?"

"Err… That carnival trick won't save you slacker! I activate Unholy Powers from Beyond, and I'll use it to copy Uria's trap destruction ability! Armityle, destroy the card on the left!"

Armityle blasted the card and destroyed it. Jaden's expression was impossible to read.

"Now attack Titanus!"

"Titanus, shields up!"

Armityle's attack was blocked.

"That is number eight." said Billy "You're out of ammo!"

"That's okay, I don't need any more."

"No!"

"I activate the equip spell Destructo-Sword!"

A glowing sword came falling out of the sky and sank into the ground. Titanus reached down and pulled it out.

"And it says here when it's equipped to Titanus, when he attacks; spells, traps, and monster effects cannot be activated, and any spell, trap, or monster effects currently active on your side of the field are negated until the end of the damage step."

"What?! You've got to be kidding me!"

"Titanus, attack!"

Titanus took it's Destructo-Sword, charged over, and managed to slice Armityle in half.

(Billy: 0)

"NO!!! I lost… even with the… Sacred Beasts…"

Suddenly one of the chains holding the arena up broke. Jaden was quick enough to make it off, but Billy wasn't so lucky.

"AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!"

"Billy!"

Billy was holding on to the broken chain with one arm, there was nothing but a few feet of hot air in-between him the molten lava below.

"I told you no one escapes me Billy… and this time there will be nothing your little lady friend can do to save you…"

"NO! NO! NO!!!"

Billy had been in the bad place long enough to know he didn't want to go back, he was willing to do anything to prevent that from happening again, even if it meant begging his archenemy for help.

"JADEN! You wouldn't let me fry, would you?!"

Jaden just stood there with a grin on his face like he was considering it.

"Come on! Think of my children!"

"You don't have any children."

"… Some day I might."

At that moment Jaden heard something in his head.

"You're not just gonna let him die like that are you?"

"He… He tried to kill me, and my at the time unborn daughter, and if the situation was reversed he'd let me fry."

"Yes, but you need to be better than he his. If nothing else do it to set a good example for your daughter."

"But eventually he'll try to kill me again."

"Not if you make him promise he won't."

"How do we know he'll keep his promise?"

"Because I said so."

"And you are?"

"Err… I'm a mystical disembodied voice talking in your head, trust me."

"Okay Bill, here's the deal. I'll save your life, if you promise to leave me, my family, and my friends alone… Oh and give Bruno what you promised him."

"OKAY! I SWEAR! YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN!!!"

"Alright, Neos bring him up."

When Neos brought Billy up he started kissing the floor.

"OH SWEET GROUND!!! MWAH-MEWA-MWAH… Oh I love you, I love you, I love you!"

"Now someone keep an eye on this cry baby and his girlfriend until the cops arrive."

Everyone was applauding Jaden's victory when suddenly a certain voice broke through the rest.

"Quiet everyone! I think Sakura is trying to say something!" said Alexis.

Just like that everyone was quiet.

"What is it sweetie?"

Sakura was struggling a little trying to get the words out.

"Eiiiieyah…. Eiiiiieyah…"

"Come on honey you can do it."

"Eiiieyah…. luuuuuvvv… mmmaaaaaiii…. daaadee."

"Gasp… Aww… You just said, you love your daddy… Hey what about mommy?" said Alexis.

"Eiiieyah… luuuvvv… maaii… moommeee… toooo."

"That's more like it."

"Hey what about uncle Atti?"

"Will you buzz off." said Chazz.

"Blair, do you think you can take care of Sakura for the rest of the night? I think Jaden deserves a reward for all the duels he's been through, and for defeating the Sacred Beasts a third time." said Alexis winking.

"Oh sure, I think I can manage that."

"Can we eat first?" said Jaden.

**(Wait we're not done yet! What about Sakura's Birthday?!)**

**Until then, new Illustraions available on deviant art.**

**Titanus and the destructo-sword**


	14. Happy Birthday Sakura

Jaden and Alexis got up early the next morning, they wanted to be there when their daughter woke up.

"Happy Birthday Sakura!"

"Wait! Something's missing."

Atticus put a small birthday girl crown on Sakura's head.

"There you go."

"So what do you want for breakfast sweetie?" asked Alexis "You can have whatever you want today."

Sakura knew what she wanted, but she needed Yubel's help since she didn't know the word for it.

"Na… na… na… nanaah."

"Okay, you just sit tight, and we'll get you some delicious banana flavored baby slop."

"So, where's Billy?"

"The cops came and took him and his girlfriend late last night, but not before he kept his promise to Bruno." said Chazz.

"Yeah, just look outside." said Jesse.

Outside Jaden and the others could see Bruno and what appeared to be a female mutant crocodile cuddled up and sleeping peacefully by the water.

"Isn't that cute?" asked Mindy "Two mutant crocodiles in love."

"Chancellor Sheppard said they could stay here if they promised not to eat anybody, Bruno said that wouldn't be a problem, apparently he and Liz don't eat humans because they think we have too much hair." said Blair.

"What about that John guy and Heather?"

"Apparently they split last night, they were the smart ones."

"And Tom?"

"They scooped him up and are sending him back to Kaiba Corp so they can try to fix his little personality glitch. Don't worry; nothing is going to spoil Sakura's big day."

"Hey Chumley, did you bring what we asked for?"

"Got ya covered."

"Is it in a safe place? I don't want the surprise spoiled."

"It's being occupied, no trouble at all."

Eventually it came time for cake and then presents.

"It's bucket-o-stuffed duel monsters!" said Atticus "They squeak, they sing, and they're downright adorable! But wait, there's more! Order now and we'll send you the bucket-o-stuffed duel monsters accessories absolutely free! For only ninety nine ninety nine ninety nine!"

"I thought you were just a reality show host. When did you start doing commercials?" asked Syrus.

"Since I was promised big money to endorse these products."

Chazz's gift was a custom duel disk with what Jaden and Alexis had told him were Sakura's favorite colors. Of course Sakura couldn't even lift the thing off the ground.

"Don't worry, you'll grow into it."

Blair got Sakura so bedtime stories, Mindy and Jasmine each got her some new clothes, and Jesse got her a stuffed Rainbow Dragon.

"Just wait Sakura, your mommy and daddy got you something very special." said Yubel.

"Sweetie, we know how much you like watching your mommy and me duel, so we had Chumley make a very special card just for you, but you need to promise to take good care of it." said Jaden.

"Eeeeiiiiiaaaa…. vviiiilll… daaaddee."

"Okay. Chumley, bring it in."

Chumley took out a small white box, inside there was a single card in a plastic case.

"Her name is Cyber Heroine Azura."

Almost instantly the card's duel spirit emerged.

"Whoa… she's hot!" said each of the three Ojama brothers.

"Hi Sakura."

"Azu… azu… Azuuuuurraaa."

"Yes."

Azura knelt down and gave Sakura a hug.

"You and I are going to be great friends."

"There's no doubt in my mind Jaden, your little baby will grow up to be an excellent duelist." said Dorothy.

"Of course she will, she's got her mother's looks, and my spirit, it's a winning combination!"

**(The end)**


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